The victims of the hack on infidelity website Ashley Madison experience more dire consequences than imagined, ranging from extortion attempts, hate crimes, and even suicide.
Toronto police Staff Supt. Bryce Evans said Monday that this case is "not fun and games." This issue stemmed when hacker Impact Team penetrated Toronto-based website Ashley Madison. When the information from the site's more than 30 million users was first released, it led to countless ripples of various crimes. According to Evans, some of the crimes include various cyber scams, hate crimes, and reports of suicide.
Though the Police officer didn't elaborate on the suicide cases, there are reports from various media outlets that two individuals allegedly took their lives, as one of the spin-off crimes that resulted from the hacks.
Mandiant Canada General Manager Ajay Sood said that this scenario where millions of accounts have been breached can be considered a corporate "Armageddon." Mandiant is a security company that handled the hack cases at Target and Sony. Ashley Madison released a statement condemning the hack and calling it an "unprovoked criminal intrusion" into their system. The company's report states, "It is an illegal action against the individual members of Ashley Madison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities."
Ashley Madison may be playing victim in this hacking case, but there is a twist to this story. According to reports, there were 30-gigabyte archive emails from the company's CEO Noel Biderman suggesting that they hacked into a rival website in 2012. During that year, AshleyMadison.com's founding chief technology officer Raja Bhatia emailed Biderman saying dating service website nerve.com has a security hole.
The email shows that Bhatia found a way to download and manipulate the user database of nerve.com, which is an American online magazine focused on topics such as relationships, culture, and sexual topics.
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