Ashley Madison Hackers Release a Second Data Dump

The hackers behind the infamous Ashley Madison breach have released a second, larger cache of stolen data. And this time, it includes critical content such as the source code for the website and the company’s applications, along with emails from the company’s CEO.

Upping the ante,  hackers responsible for the Ashley Madison breach have released a bigger dump of stolen data that contains sensitive information and emails to and from the company’s foremost executive, Noel Biderman, reports Wired.

The hacker group who call themselves the ‘Impact Team’ have doubled their efforts from the first 9.7 GB data dump posted on Tuesday. In their latest effort, the hackers have released an even bigger batch of data – nearly 20 GB of uncompressed files that includes the all-important source code for the website and its mobile applications.

The hackers also seem to take glee in taking a direct shot at Avid Life Media (Ashley Madison’s parent company) CEO, Noel Biderman. They included a statement that reads: “Hey Noel, you can admit it’s real now,” accompanying the dump.

The note is likely to be a direct response to claims from Ashley Madison’s former CTO, Raja Bhatia, who claimed the first data dump could be fake, earlier this week.

Impact Team seem to have a vendetta against the company’s management and leadership from the very onset. Calling out the CTO of ALM by his first name, their very first statement a month ago read: “Well Trevor, welcome to your worst … nightmare.”

Divorce lawyers rejoice?

Several data-diggers combing through the data dumps have released the following findings:

  • 24 of the 36 million registered accounts have valid email addresses. The remaining 12 million do not. This doesn’t matter, however, as the website never did verify email addresses to begin with.
  • 31 million accounts claim to be men, the remaining 5 million are women.
  • 9 million users claim to be single, appeasing those who claimed the website wasn’t exclusively a means to adultery.

Avid Life Media released the following statement, directly addressing the second data dump:

“We are aware of the reports that criminals have stolen proprietary company files from Avid Life Media (ALM) and are disseminating them online. We are working with law enforcement, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)…

“Regardless of the nature of the content, our customers, this company, and its employees are all exercising their legal and individual rights, and all deserve the ability to do so unhindered by outside interference, vigilantism, selective moralizing and judgment. The individual or individuals who are responsible for this straightforward case of theft should be held accountable to the fullest extent of international law.”

The statement represents a shifting of stance for Avid Life Media, who have repeatedly doubted the authenticity of the breached data in the past.

By nearly all accounts, the Ashley Madison breach is very real and far worse than initially imagined, with millions of users’ privacy intruded upon and the very real possibility of identity theft of millions.