Ashley Madison offers reward of 326,000 euros for golden tip about hack

Avid Life Media, the company behind dating site Ashley Madison, is offering a reward of CAD 500,000, or €326,000, for anyone who can provide information that leads authorities to the hackers who in July made off with the site’s customer data. used to go.

Speaking at a press conference in Toronto, Bryce Evans, chief of the Specialized Criminal Investegations division of the Toronto Police Force, said the investigation into the hack was being conducted by his division, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the U.S. Homeland Security. the FBI and other parties. He calls on hackers worldwide to immediately pass on all information they have about the hackers, who call themselves the Impact Team.

The company behind the dating site for people in a relationship, Avid Life Media, was hacked by the Impact Team on July 12 this year. The customer data of the members of Ashley Madison, but also of sister sites Established Men and Cougar Life are in the hands of the hackers. Emails from Avid Life Media employees have also been copied. The Impact team demanded that Ashley Madison and Established Men be taken offline, not only because the sites are immoral, but also because Ashley Madison’s Full Delete feature, which cost users $19, did not actually delete data from the servers.

Avid Life Media did not give in to the Impact Team and as a result more than 50 gigabytes of data are now out on the street. The leaks contain customer data from Ashley Madison that can identify users, and an email dump from Avid Life Media director Noel Biderman. The data from Cougar Life and Established Men has not yet been leaked.

At the same time, a class action lawsuit has been filed against Avid Life Media for its failure to protect its users’ data, and unconfirmed reports are circulating that two people committed suicide as a result of their “exposure” by the hackers.

Part of Impact Team’s statement, published by Krebs on Security