Ashley Madison offers £300,000 reward amid reports of member suicides

[Syt]

http://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2015/08/ashley-madison-offers-500000-reward-amid-reports-of-member-suicides/

Ashley Madison offers £300,000 reward amid reports of member suicides

Global investigation involving FBI, Homeland Security pledges no unturned stones.

An international roster of police and private investigators are vowing to vigorously pursue the people who hacked the Ashley Madison dating website for cheaters, with the cheating site offering a $500,000 reward (~£320,000) and appealing for help from hackers around the world.

The full-court press comes amid a report of at least two suicides of people whose personal information was included in the massive dump of account data for Ashley Madison, which carried the tag line "Life is short. Have an affair." It's too early to say if the exposures were the proximate reason the individuals took their lives, but the deaths were discussed during a press conference the Toronto Police Service held early Monday morning. Bryce Evans, acting staff superintendent, said the outing of so many people in committed relationships cheating on their partners crossed a line that could destroy lives and careers of millions of people around the world.

He called on hackers around the world to provide tips to law enforcement agencies working to identify the people who thoroughly rooted the servers of Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media. He also said the investigation was being carried out jointly by his department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the US Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and others. Additionally, he said Avid Life Media has pledged a $500,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the people responsible for the compromise, who have dubbed themselves Impact Team.

"This is your wake-up call," Evans said, addressing the Impact Team members directly. "We are now doing a serious investigation and inviting all our partners."

Evans said he was appealing to fellow hackers around the world because they or someone they know may have information that was included in the more than 50 gigabytes of data that is now a part of the permanent Internet record. The crowd-sourcing attempt is a potentially savvy move, since hackers often have the mindset and skills police investigators lack in closing in on people carrying out online crimes.

Bryce provided additional color that wasn't widely known until now. For instance, the first indication Ashley Madison had been breached came on the morning of July 12 when several Ashley Madison employees turned on their computers and heard them blaring the AC/DC song "Thunderstruck." A message displayed on their screens informed them of the hack and threatened to release e-mail addresses, credit-card data, and other subscriber information unless executives immediately and permanently took down the Ashley Madison website. A week later, after Ashley Madison failed to comply, people identifying themselves as Impact Team members released details for two Ashley Madison members. The full outing took place last Tuesday.

In the July 12 message, Impact Team members also ordered the shutdown of Established Men, another Avid Life Media-owned dating website for wealthy men and people who want to meet them. So far there are no reports of member data for that site being leaked online. It wouldn't be surprising if information for those subscribers is published soon.

[Martinus]

I hope they get those bastards.

[Tonitrus]

I am torn...illegal hackers are usually scum, but so are adulterers.

[garbon]

I am torn...illegal hackers are usually scum, but so are adulterers.

I don't know. I don't know enough about the kinds of people who use Ashley Madison to make that claim.

[Valmy]

I have  to say if exposure of sex customers becomes commonplace it would be a pretty radical change. Ashley Madison and all sites for everything from pornography to hookup apps to whatever should all be sweating.

[Martinus]

I am with garbon. I don't think it is our business to hound people for adultery, which is not a crime - not to mention that a lot of people who use the site do not have to be adulterers in the first place - people's personal relationships may be subject to all kinds of arrangements that are consensual if not standard and it is not our job as the public to interfere with that.

[Berkut]

I am torn...illegal hackers are usually scum, but so are adulterers.

I am not even a little bit torn.

If you have a principled respect for individuals right to privacy as a foudnational right, it should not (indeed it CANNOT) only apply to people you like or agree with.

This is yet another litmus test for whether or not people actually believe the bullshit they spout as a matter of course.

If the answer to the question of "Do you think people have the right to not have their private information published by hackers" is "Of course! Unless they are jerks/adulterers/Jews/Muslims/women/languish poster/Berkut" then you do not actually buy into the idea that there is such a thing as a right to privacy in the first place.

[Valmy]

I mean this not really a debate. The laws, and law enforcement, are all clearly on Ashley Madison's side here. The question is how confident we can be on the internet to maintain your privacy for stuff like this.

[DGuller]

I am torn...illegal hackers are usually scum, but so are adulterers.

I am not even a little bit torn.

If you have a principled respect for individuals right to privacy as a foudnational right, it should not (indeed it CANNOT) only apply to people you like or agree with.

This is yet another litmus test for whether or not people actually believe the bullshit they spout as a matter of course.

If the answer to the question of "Do you think people have the right to not have their private information published by hackers" is "Of course! Unless they are jerks/adulterers/Jews/Muslims/women/languish poster/Berkut" then you do not actually buy into the idea that there is such a thing as a right to privacy in the first place.

I'm going to have to agree with Berkut.  I was actually a little taken aback by Tonitrus's post.

[garbon]

I mean this not really a debate. The laws, and law enforcement, are all clearly on Ashley Madison's side here. The question is how confident we can be on the internet to maintain your privacy for stuff like this.

I don't really think a person should be expecting the internet to maintain one's privacy for anything like hook ups.

[Agelastus]

I thought that Tonitrus was being humorous.

[Valmy]

I mean this not really a debate. The laws, and law enforcement, are all clearly on Ashley Madison's side here. The question is how confident we can be on the internet to maintain your privacy for stuff like this.

I don't really think a person should be expecting the internet to maintain one's privacy for anything like hook ups.

No? That would kind of defeat the purpose.

[garbon]

I mean this not really a debate. The laws, and law enforcement, are all clearly on Ashley Madison's side here. The question is how confident we can be on the internet to maintain your privacy for stuff like this.

I don't really think a person should be expecting the internet to maintain one's privacy for anything like hook ups.

No? That would kind of defeat the purpose.

Of Ashley Madison? Sure. Most dating/hook-up sites? I don't think so.

[Valmy]

Of Ashley Madison? Sure. Most dating/hook-up sites? I don't think so.

Ah I see where you were going with that. Well I am not sure everybody on dating/hook-up sites wants it released to the world they are a member.

[Maximus]

I don't really think a person should be expecting the internet to maintain one's privacy for anything like hook ups.

"The internet" is rather ambiguous, and I agree that it is not very wise to expect privacy at the current state of the art. However one should be able to expect personal privacy. It is an extremely important personal right.