Hackers leak 36 million user information of cheating site AshelyMadison

Hackers claiming to have stolen data from AshleyMadison.com, a website that facilitates hook-ups between would-be adulterers, have allegedly released information of more than 36 million user accounts.

After the data breach happened last month, the hackers, naming themselves the "Impact Team", issued a warning, demanding the Avid Life Media, owner of the website, to take down the site together with its companion site Established Men. Avid Life Media defied the warning.

The hackers then released a "read-me" note together with a file nearly 10 gigabytes in size on Tuesday after what they said ignorance of the website owner to their previous warning.

"Find someone you know in here? Keep in mind the site is a scam with thousands of fake female profiles," the read-me note said. "Chances are your man signed up on the world's biggest affair site, but never had one. He just tried to. If that distinction matters."

One cybersecurity expert from Atlanta said the data dump appeared to be real after verification from multiple users who admitted to having registered on the website.

"I have verified multiple users of the site, one of which was a throw-away account used only on the site," Robert Graham from Errata Security wrote in a blog post. "Assuming my followers (of the twitter account) aren't lying, this means the dump is confirmed."

According to U.S. media, one analysis of email addresses found in the data dump also shows that about 15,000 email accounts end with ".mil" or ".gov".

Established in 2012, AshleyMadison.com says on its homepage that it is "the most famous name in infidelity and married dating." Currently, the site claims nearly 40 million users. Endit