Adult hook up sites have become a profitable industry, and entrepreneurs have made super-fortunes with niche marketing. Individuals can find websites dedicated to every type of fetish, interest or desire. This week the adultery websites, Ashley Madison and Established Men, were hacked by a group named the Impact Team. The hacker group has threatened to release the personal information of clients to the general population if the websites do not cease operations. This has raised security concerns amongst the adult industry.
What began as one section of a few adult matchmaking sites, has now become its own industry. Entrepreneurs are making millions off yet another taboo that captivate millions of subscribers a year. Consumers are all too familiar with hacks these days, especially at the POS. But this latest hack into what should be a secure infrastructure has more than cheaters a bit on edge.
Ashley Madison executives admit that their website suffered a “criminal intrusion” into its system. Hackers took the personal information of 37 million members plus the private information from the website’s owner, Avid Life Media. The hack was first reported Sunday by information security expert, Brian Krebs. Krebs and his team have successfully removed posts with the personal details of silver account members and others for the moment.
The incident is still under investigation by forensic experts and law enforcement. The Impact Team demands that Avid Life Media take down Ashley Madison and Established Men, or the group will release all customer records, along with customer profiles, sexual fantasies, credit card transactions, employee documents, names, and addresses.
Sources state that the hack was perpetrated due to Avid Life Media’s “full delete” feature. For $19, the company was supposed to completely scrub the information of repentant cheaters from the website. The Full Delete feature raked in $1.7mm in revenue in 2014, but the Impact Team claims that customer information is not deleted as promised. The investigation is ongoing.
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