Ashley Madison Hack Sparks Lawsuit

The Ashley Madison data breach that leaked the personal information of 37 million people has sparked a class-action lawsuit.

Two law firms in Canada, Charney Lawyers and Sutts and Strosberg LLP, announced late last week (Aug. 20) that they have filed a lawsuit on behalf of any Canadian who may have had their personal information compromised as a result of the breach. The lawsuit names Dating Life Inc. and Avid Life Media Inc., which are the corporations that run AshleyMadison.com.

The suit alleges that the privacy of thousands of Canadians were breached as a result of the hack. So far, it’s known that the data breach released personal names, emails, home addresses and message history.

“Numerous former users of AshleyMadison.com have approached the law firms to inquire about their privacy rights under Canadian law. They are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users’ information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed,” reads a statement from the firms.

And sure enough, when a high-profile hack is discovered, bitcoin crime probably isn’t far behind. And that’s exactly what’s happening with the Ashley Madison data breach.

A new report from CoinDesk shows that those who had their personal data hacked can have them back — but it’s going to cost them in bitcoin. Hackers known as the Impact Team have since released a list that contains around 33 million users and the users’ data from the dating affairs website. Allegedly, among that data is that of thousands of users linked to corporate and government email accounts.

And here’s the message the hackers are allegedly sending to those who were hacked: “Unfortunately your data was leaked in the recent hacking of Ashley Madison and I now have your information,” the message stated. “If you would like to prevent me from finding and sharing this information with your significant other send exactly 2.00000054 bitcoins (approx. value $450 USD) to the following address…”

“If you are already divorced then I suggest you think about how this information may impact any ongoing court proceedings,” the email continued. “If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this will affect your social standing amongst family and friends.”

The hackers that breached online cheating website Ashley Madison last month had allegedly warned the site’s parent company, Avid Life Media, that if they didn’t shut down the Web’s answer to Sodom and Gomorrah in the aftermath of the hack, they were going to release the names, nicknames, payment information and whatever else they had on the philanderers (and wannabes) that hang out on the site. Avid Life refused.

A 10-gigabyte file that is believed to hold emails, member profiles, credit card transactions and other sensitive Ashley Madison information went up as a BitTorrent download last week. The people over at Ars Technica downloaded the whole shebang, and while it is so far clear that the information comes from some kind of clandestine dating site, there is nothing that draws an irrefutable straight line to Ashley Madison. User data included email addresses, profile descriptions, addresses provided by users, weight and height. Payment data was also up for grabs — but was allegedly redacted, as card numbers and billing addresses do not appear.

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