It was the goal of one of many largest cybersecurity hacks in historical past, so is Ashley Madison nonetheless round? The reply to that query shocked us too, given the impression of the leak was widespread, resulting in scandals, lawsuits, and even incidents of blackmail.
The Canadian relationship website, Ashley Madison was launched in 2002 and was marketed to people who find themselves married (or individuals in relationships) who have been searching for affairs. The web site’s slogan is “Life is brief. Have an affair.” In July 2015, nonetheless, the location was hacked by a bunch generally known as The Impression Workforce, who claimed to have stolen private details about the location’s consumer base and threatened to launch names, house addresses, search histories, and bank card numbers if the location was not instantly shut down.
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After refusing to cooperate with the threats, the primary leak of names was launched in August; one other adopted just a few weeks later. Netflix’s three-episode collection Ashley Madison: Intercourse, Lies and Scandal examines the meteoric rise of the web site—which was actually a pioneer so far as on-line relationship goes—and the hack that made all of it come crashing down. In any case that, right here’s if Ashley Madison remains to be round.
Is Ashley Madison nonetheless round?
Yep, the location remains to be working although there have been some modifications to management and ahem, heightened safety and encryption. In July 2016, Avid Life Media rebranded, altering its title to Ruby Corp, and appointed a brand new CEO, Rob Segal.
As of Could 2024, the location claims to have 50 million customers worldwide. Previously owned by Avid Life Media Inc., together with different relationship web sites resembling Cougar Life and Established Males, Ashley Madison’s mum or dad firm is now merely generally known as Ruby.
“We like that Ruby has a sensual, female high quality, connotes worth and matches with the recent begin our firm is present process,” President James Millership instructed CBC on the time. “It’s a brand new day at Ruby and renaming … is a crucial step in our journey to utterly rebuild the corporate as a related, digital relationship innovator that really cares for our prospects,” Segal added.
As for the hackers, they’ve by no means been discovered. “It’s a captivating side of the entire story,” Toby Paton, the Netflix collection director stated in regards to the hacker’s identification to The New York Put up. “The cyber knowledgeable that we converse to stated it’s extraordinarily uncommon to have a complicated and high-profile [hack] and have the one that did it have by no means carried out something earlier than and by no means do something since. It actually appeared prefer it was a one-off.”
Paton thinks that it might need been an inside job, “I feel there’s a excessive likelihood that whoever did it was in some sense linked … and had some sort of inside data of how the corporate labored. However past that, I actually don’t suppose anyone is aware of. Whoever did it has carried out an awfully good job of protecting their head down.”
The highest suspect behind the Ashley Madison hack really died a yr earlier than the leak. Biderman despatched a collection of emails to an ex-Ashley Madison worker named William Brewster who led a hate marketing campaign towards the corporate after he was fired in accordance with Distractify. Biderman and different executives at Ashley Madison thought Harrison was the pinnacle of the hack. Nevertheless, Harrison died by suicide on March 5, 2014.
Ashley Madison: Intercourse, Lies and Scandal is out there to stream on Netflix.