Membership For ‘Ashley Madison,’ Website For Cheating Married Men, Doubles Despite 2015 Data Leak

Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking for affairs, has doubled its membership since a 2015 hack that leaked millions of users’ information.

The hackers, who called themselves the Impact Team, threatened to release the site’s data if Ashley Madison’s parent company, Avid Life Media, didn’t take down the site and its companion site, Established Men. In a statement posted on the “dark web,” the Impact Team cited the website’s questionable mission and business ethics as reasons, explicitly mentioning the company’s $19 “full delete” feature.

The Impact Team found that the company’s “full delete” feature failed to deliver what it promised, resulting in “deleted” user data remaining on Ashley Madison databases. When the company could not take down the website within 30 days of the hack, the Impact Team released batches of customer information.

According to Evan Back, the former vice president of sales, the company has poured millions of dollars into cybersecurity initiatives after the hack. 

“At the end of the day, for the two years that I worked there after the hack, there were millions, tens of millions of dollars invested into infrastructure and security,” Back said on Dan Abrams Live. “They have probably the most robust security of any dating platform now.”

As part of the data leak, the personal emails of Noel Biderman, the former CEO of the site, were released to the public. These emails contained details of his infidelity, though he previously claimed to be in a faithful marriage. Because of the incident, he stepped down as CEO.

Other high-profile users that were outed included former TV personality Josh Duggar and Christian vlogger Sam Rader, among others.

Though Avid Life Media offered a $500,000 reward in 2015 to anyone who could provide information about the Impact Team, the hackers have yet to be found.