The Ashley Madison hack involved a group known as 'the Impact Team' releasing approximately 40 MB of sensitive data, including credit card information and internal documents, from Avid Life Media, the parent company. They threatened to expose sensitive information of all 37 million users unless the site was shut down, leading to multiple data dumps and a $578 million class-action lawsuit against the company for privacy violations. Investigations into related suicide incidents and scams targeting users also emerged following the data leaks.

1. THE ASHLEY MADISON HACK

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cybersecurity

4. Brian Krebs, a well-known cyber blogger, breaks a story revealing that a group of hackers,
known as ‘The Impact Team’, published approx 40 MB of sensitive internal data stolen from
Avid Life Media, (referred to now as ‘ALM’), the organization that owns Ashley Madison and a
number of other dating/ hookup services.
The data dump includes customers’ credit cards and ALM internal documents.
The ‘Impact Team’ threatens to release sensitive details of all 37 million users of Ashley
Madison unless the website is permanently closed.
concise
cybersecurity

5. Brian Krebs, a well-known cyber blogger, breaks a story revealing that a group of hackers,
known as ‘The Impact Team’, published approx 40 MB of sensitive internal data stolen from
Avid Life Media, (referred to now as ‘ALM’), the organization that owns Ashley Madison and a
number of other dating/ hookup services.
The data dump includes customers’ credit cards and ALM internal documents.
The ‘Impact Team’ threatens to release sensitive details of all 37 million users of Ashley
Madison unless the website is permanently closed.
concise
cybersecurity

6. The Impact Team releases a data dump
containing the account details of all 37
million users of Ashley Madison.
Altogether, the files contain 9.7 GB of
data which are accessible via the ‘deep
web’ and include names, passwords,
addresses, phone numbers and credit
card transactions of the site’s users.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 18, 2015

7. The Ashley Madison data dump is posted on the open web, making its’
information readily searchable on several public websites. However, there
is only one full download since one of the original seeders (in the torrent
pool) with the only full copy, unplugged before leechers could obtain the
full download. However, thousands of people downloaded 97% of that
particular data-set.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 19, 2015

8. The hackers release a second data dump of sensitive materials. This time
the data includes 13 GB of information stolen from Biderman’s (the CEO)
private email account. Researchers attempt to open that file, labeled
‘noel.biderman.mail.7z,’ but find that it cannot be unpacked because it has
been corrupted.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 20, 2015

9. Two Canadian law firms ‘Charney Lawyers and
Sutts, Strosberg’, both of Ontario file a 578
million class-action lawsuit against Avid Dating
Life and Avid Life Media on behalf of Canadian
citizens who in the past subscribed to Ashley
Madison’s services. According to a statement
issued by the firms, their lawsuit considers to
what extent the website protected its users’
privacy under Canadian law.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 21, 2015

10. Two Canadian law firms ‘Charney Lawyers and
Sutts, Strosberg’, both of Ontario file a 578
million class-action lawsuit against Avid Dating
Life and Avid Life Media on behalf of Canadian
citizens who in the past subscribed to Ashley
Madison’s services. According to a statement
issued by the firms, their lawsuit considers to
what extent the website protected its users’
privacy under Canadian law.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 21, 2015
At issue is a feature of Ashley
Madison called ‘paid-delete,’ a
process whereby users could
have their data erased from the
website’s servers for a fee of
USD 19.

11. The ‘Impact Team’ releases a third dump, which includes a zip file
containing messages leaked from Biderman’s personal email account.
The emails reveal that Biderman cheated on his wife and attempted to
engage in adultery with at least three other separate women.
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cybersecurity
TIMELINE
AUGUST 22, 2015

12. Toronto Police in Canada begin investigating two suicide reports with
possible ties to the Ashley Madison hacking scandal. Meanwhile, the
adultery website announces a USD 380,000 reward for any information that
could lead to the arrest of those responsible for hacking its servers.
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TIMELINE
AUGUST 24, 2015

13. It is announced that scammers and
extortionists had begun to target Ashley
Madison’s users.
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TIMELINE
AUGUST 25, 2015

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cybersecurity
THE ACTUAL DEFACED WEBSITE

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WHO WAS/ WERE THE
HACKERS?

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