5 ms·

Infidelity site Ashley Madison hacked as attackers demand total shutdown

48 points by Shihan 11y ago

dbg31415 11y ago
Why would anyone use their real name or email address on a site like that? Let the hackers reveal all the info... should just be a bunch of "FAKE FAKERSON" accounts and people who probably aren't bright enough to have an affair anyway.
- Zikes 11y ago
  Good luck getting a credit card with "FAKE FAKERSON" on it.
  - rail2rail 11y ago
    I guess you've never heard of pre-paid credit cards. You can buy them with no ID from Wal-mart, etc.
  - tombrossman 11y ago
    I'm pretty sure you can add any name you like, so long as you are adding it as an additional card under your existing account. It does not guarantee anonymity from bank employees but it does keep your real name out of vendor's records.
- saryant 11y ago
  Seems like credit card records were compromised as well. Harder to fake a name with those (though someone could've used a prepaid Visa card or the like).
  - simplicio 11y ago
    Yea, I was only sort of aware of AshleyMadison, but I assumed facilitating a high degree of anonymity was basically the main service they provided. I guess that's not the case. Giving your real name/address/DOB/credit card to a site specifically set up for cheating seems like basically asking to get blackmailed.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Sites distributing images of child sexual abuse often have similar lists of subscribers and their credit card details. Very many people use their real details on those sites, even though the penalties of getting caught are much more severe. The best example of this is Operation Ore - a site was taken down by law enforcement and many thousands of people were investigated and found to have images of child sexual abuse. The investigation was made easier because so many people used their real names and linked that to their everyday credit card, allowing easy linking to their current address. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore One notable result was that Pete Townshed (of The Who) was found to have paid for access to images of child sexual abuse. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9572773/Pete-Townshend-I-paid-for-child-porn-to-prove-British-banks-were-channelling-sex-ring-cash.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9572773/...
  - makomk 11y ago
    That's not quite how Operation Ore went down, from what I recall. Thousands of people were indeed arrested for having their credit card details on the records of a company that sold child sexual abuse images, but most of them had actually paid for legitimate adult porn or were victims or credit card fraud and didn't have any such images, yet got convicted anyway thanks to some sleazy police work. The US equivalent, Operation Avalanche, did only arrest people who were actually linked to child porn in some way and only managed to arrest 100 people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Avalanche_(child_pornography_investigation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Avalanche_(child_por...
    - DanBC 11y ago
      There were many false arrests. There were also many convictions - enough evidence for an investigation, enough evidence for an arrest, enough evidence for a prosecution, and enough evidence to persuade a judge / jury beyond all reasonable doubt that an offence had occured. > leading to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned and 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations[2] and an estimated 33[3] suicides.[4][5] Operation Ore identified and prosecuted some sex offenders, but the validity of the police procedures was later questioned, as errors in the investigations resulted in a large number of false arrests.[3] 7,250 suspect and 1,451 convictions is pretty significant.
- atestu 11y ago
  You still have to put a photo of yourself though! (I'm guessing?)
carlmcqueen 11y ago
Not sure if it's in this link or not, but from krebs it was stated that the 'erase me completely' for a fee was just taking money and laughing. That may have the largest impact if someone's identity is released and that person had paid to be completely removed from records.
- colinbartlett 11y ago
  Not exactly, more that they left around credit card/purchase info. From Krebs On Security: > According to the hackers, although the “full delete” feature that Ashley Madison advertises promises “removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site,” users’ purchase details — including real name and address — aren’t actually scrubbed. http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/ http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashl...
itsuart 11y ago
Whole new level of 'stop liking what I like!'? Also 'hacker' should have released everything and sent links to the media. That would close the site for sure. And would generate quite a few lawsuits from exposed people. And who knows maybe some more regulations privacy-wise would pop up. Yet another episode of self-righteous attention seeking.
richmarr 11y ago
See discussion a few hours back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9914024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9914024
mandelbulb 11y ago
Regarding leaked data from dating sites, I'm only interested in the number of fake and never used accounts which merely exist to bloat the number of members.

48 points by Shihan 11y ago

Why would anyone use their real name or email address on a site like that? Let the hackers reveal all the info... should just be a bunch of "FAKE FAKERSON" accounts and people who probably aren't bright enough to have an affair anyway.

Zikes 11y ago
Good luck getting a credit card with "FAKE FAKERSON" on it.
- rail2rail 11y ago
  I guess you've never heard of pre-paid credit cards. You can buy them with no ID from Wal-mart, etc.
- tombrossman 11y ago
  I'm pretty sure you can add any name you like, so long as you are adding it as an additional card under your existing account. It does not guarantee anonymity from bank employees but it does keep your real name out of vendor's records.
saryant 11y ago
Seems like credit card records were compromised as well. Harder to fake a name with those (though someone could've used a prepaid Visa card or the like).
- simplicio 11y ago
  Yea, I was only sort of aware of AshleyMadison, but I assumed facilitating a high degree of anonymity was basically the main service they provided. I guess that's not the case. Giving your real name/address/DOB/credit card to a site specifically set up for cheating seems like basically asking to get blackmailed.
DanBC 11y ago
Sites distributing images of child sexual abuse often have similar lists of subscribers and their credit card details. Very many people use their real details on those sites, even though the penalties of getting caught are much more severe. The best example of this is Operation Ore - a site was taken down by law enforcement and many thousands of people were investigated and found to have images of child sexual abuse. The investigation was made easier because so many people used their real names and linked that to their everyday credit card, allowing easy linking to their current address. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore One notable result was that Pete Townshed (of The Who) was found to have paid for access to images of child sexual abuse. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9572773/Pete-Townshend-I-paid-for-child-porn-to-prove-British-banks-were-channelling-sex-ring-cash.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/9572773/...
- makomk 11y ago
  That's not quite how Operation Ore went down, from what I recall. Thousands of people were indeed arrested for having their credit card details on the records of a company that sold child sexual abuse images, but most of them had actually paid for legitimate adult porn or were victims or credit card fraud and didn't have any such images, yet got convicted anyway thanks to some sleazy police work. The US equivalent, Operation Avalanche, did only arrest people who were actually linked to child porn in some way and only managed to arrest 100 people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Avalanche_(child_pornography_investigation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Avalanche_(child_por...
  - DanBC 11y ago
    There were many false arrests. There were also many convictions - enough evidence for an investigation, enough evidence for an arrest, enough evidence for a prosecution, and enough evidence to persuade a judge / jury beyond all reasonable doubt that an offence had occured. > leading to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned and 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations[2] and an estimated 33[3] suicides.[4][5] Operation Ore identified and prosecuted some sex offenders, but the validity of the police procedures was later questioned, as errors in the investigations resulted in a large number of false arrests.[3] 7,250 suspect and 1,451 convictions is pretty significant.
atestu 11y ago
You still have to put a photo of yourself though! (I'm guessing?)

carlmcqueen 11y ago

Not sure if it's in this link or not, but from krebs it was stated that the 'erase me completely' for a fee was just taking money and laughing. That may have the largest impact if someone's identity is released and that person had paid to be completely removed from records.

colinbartlett 11y ago
Not exactly, more that they left around credit card/purchase info. From Krebs On Security: > According to the hackers, although the “full delete” feature that Ashley Madison advertises promises “removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site,” users’ purchase details — including real name and address — aren’t actually scrubbed. http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/ http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashl...

itsuart 11y ago

Whole new level of 'stop liking what I like!'? Also 'hacker' should have released everything and sent links to the media. That would close the site for sure. And would generate quite a few lawsuits from exposed people. And who knows maybe some more regulations privacy-wise would pop up. Yet another episode of self-righteous attention seeking.

richmarr 11y ago

See discussion a few hours back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9914024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9914024

mandelbulb 11y ago

Regarding leaked data from dating sites, I'm only interested in the number of fake and never used accounts which merely exist to bloat the number of members.