If the 10GB file allegedly containing the personal data of the millions of philanderers on affair site Ashley Madison wasn’t enough to whet your whistle, hacking group Impact Team has released a fresh batch of data today.
The new file is nearly double the size of the original, clocking in at 18GB. Amid the data files, there are a few that specifically delineate Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman’s personal data. He was also called out in the note accompanying the hack file.
The message is directly pointed at ALM’s denial that the data dump is real. Motherboard pointed to an interview that Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security had with AshleyMadison’s founding CTO Raja Bhatia, who told Krebs that Impact Team’s data dump doesn’t seem legitimate:
“The overwhelming amount of data released in the last three weeks is fake data,” he said. “But we’re taking every release seriously and looking at each piece of data and trying to analyze the source and the veracity of the data.”
Despite all of Bhatia’s posturing, the legitimacy of credit cards and address data is overwhelming. Many of the credit cards found in the original data dump were still in active use. Actual addresses of real people have been identified, including Gawker’s spotting of scandal-embroiled ’19 Kids and Counting’ star and former Family Research Council employee Josh Duggar.
Krebs updated that very interview with his own confirmation from three verified sources:
I’m sure there are millions of AshleyMadison users who wish it weren’t so, but there is every indication this dump is the real deal.
Who knows what will be found in the latest dump of data, but it’s safe to say that ALM has a serious problem on its hands.
➤ Hackers Dump More Ashley Madison Data [Motherboard]
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