BBC News has published a report claiming that two members of the Ashley Madison adultery website have killed themselves, after hackers leaked its database onto the net.
If those reports are true, it’s obviously a horrendous – albeit sadly predictable – turn of events.
In my view, a difficult and sensitive situation has been made worse by irresponsible reporting by some in the media, sick publicity-seeking by companies ranging from betting firms to private investigators, and baying crowds on social media believing that anyone who was mentioned in the leaked database deserves everything coming to them…
Well, they’re wrong.
Nobody deserves to die because of the Ashley Madison leak. And even if your details were found in the database it DOESN’T mean you were ever a member of the site (as it didn’t verify email addresses), and it definitely doesn’t mean you cheated on your partner.
And even if you were on the Ashley Madison website, you might have had a perfectly good reason that no-one would be likely to find questionable.
If you have been affected by the Ashley Madison hack, and feel distressed or vulnerable, please seek help.
USA and Canada
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
United Kingdom
Samaritans: 08457 90 90 90
Australia
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide prevention hotlines for other countries are listed here.
Further reading:- Ashley Madison's leaked database available for download - read this first
- Ashley Madison blackmailers now sending threats via US postal system
- Here's what an Ashley Madison blackmail letter looks like
- Now it's Ashley Madison wives who are receiving blackmail letters
- 'Bring me the head of the AC/DC-loving Ashley Madison hacker'
- Suicide and Ashley Madison
- Ashley Madison: Betting site offers odds on who will be exposed
- 'Yes. I was a member of the Ashley Madison website. But I wasn’t there to cheat on anyone'
- Ashley Madison hack could expose 37 million 'cheating dirtbags'
- No Ashley Madison, you weren't burgled by terrorists
- Ashley Madison users warned of password risk
- Cracked Ashley Madison passwords consistent with years of poor security
- Post-hack, Ashley Madison offers members full and free account deletion
- Don't judge Ashley Madison users too quickly, their accounts may be fake
- Just who is joining the Ashley Madison website?
- Fembots land Ashley Madison in hot water with the FTC
- Ashley Madison's marketing department clearly didn't get the memo
- Ashley Madison: Further thoughts on its aftermath
- Ashley Madison hack claims another victim: Its CEO
- Ashley Madison slammed with $1.6 million fine for devastating data breach
Yes I agree this is so sad and thank you for posting this.
It's conceivable that someone could have visited the Ashley Madison site out of simple curiosity, although it's unclear why anyone who didn't want it known would have given the site a legitimate email address.
Anyhow, this alleged "data base" should have zero credibility. Now that it's "out there", anyone can tamper with it and add any data they want, for any reason. For example, Person A wants to discredit Person B (and not surprisingly, there are some unkind people in the world), so he/she adds Person B's information to an altered copy of the data base.
And of course, since email addresses were never verified in the first place, even the original data base is worthless as a means of "proving" that someone visited the site.
In fact, the only thing it proves is that the blackguards who heisted it and distributed it are idiots.
The database and other files were signed by the hackers with a pgp key. It is very easy to tell if you are looking at the originals or copies that have been tampered with. Have a look at documentation on PGP signing if you'd like to understand how it works.
Graham:
Thank you for posting this.
As you say just because names were out there is no sign that the individual actually was on the site. As you've pointed out in the past – sometime(often) many of these sites have ALOT of fake profiles…why not jut harvest a bunch of stuff of the net and dump it in…as you say nothing was verified.
The fact that two people died as a result of this is just horrible.
I'd imagine the 2 people went to the trouble of checking their names were leaked before taking the final step!
Excellent and timely post Graham. I'm with 100% on this.
Stephen