Ashley Madison user details leak update: Leaked emails suggest boss hacked competitor's site; two suicides linked to controversy
While online cheating service AshleyMadison.com says it was a victim of cybercrime, leaked emails from the company's CEO indicate that the admin just may have hacked into a competitor's site in 2012.
The Impact Team, the hackers who claimed responsibility for infiltrating the data and information of more than 30 million AshleyMadison users, unveiled a 30-gigabyte archive that it claims have been acquired from the site's CEO, Noel Biderman's email server.
The emails reveal that at one point in 2012, Raja Bhatia, founding chief technology officer of the site, sent an email to Biderman, informing his boss that he has found an entry point in the system of nerve.com, a competing American magazine that focuses on sexual topics, relationships, and cultures.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Coincidentally, nerve.com was at the point of experimenting with the adult dating section, and Bhatia reportedly emailed his boss about finding a way to manipulate the site's user database, Krebs on Security reported.
Meanwhile, BBC reports that two people associated with the AshleyMadison customer details leak have committed suicide.
According to the news outlet, Canada police have refrained from giving out further details on the said suicide cases.
The infiltrated site's Canadian parent company, Avid Life Media, has offered a total of 500,000 Canadian dollars as reward for information that anyone can give about the hackers.
The company has also asked for assistance from Toronto police in identifying the hackers. Bryce Evans, acting staff superintendent of the Toronto police said, "I want to make it very clear to you your actions are illegal and we will not be tolerating them. This is your wake-up call," in an attempt to call out on the hackers.
Detective Menard from the technological crime unit of the local police called the breach a "very sophisticated" one, as the millions of account details are in the verge of being exposed.
The hack was discovered on July 12 when Avid Life Media employees turned their computers on and read a message from the hackers, accompanied by "Thunderstruck," music by AC/DC.
