"Life is short. Have an affair," Ashley Madison's tagline reads. (Photo : Reuters)
Online dating website Ashley Madison has been hacked retrieving sensitive information of users.
Ashley Madison is a website that brings together individuals who are seeking to commit infidelity.
The hacking group, "The Impact Team," claims that they have been able to procure sensitive information such as customer profiles, real world names, addresses and even records of credit card transactions as well as documents and emails from the Ashley Madison website, CNN reported.
The Canada-based website offers a $19 service which it calls "paid-delete", where all the data and associated data of a user is completely destroyed. This feature seems to motivate the hacker or hackers' actions, calling the service "a complete lie."
Unlike most online dating websites that cater to eligible singles, Ashley Madison distinguishes itself from the rest by providing a means for married people to have an affair. The website, which in the past, has bragged about its level of security has an estimated 37 million members from different parts of the world.
Avid Life Media (ALM), the parent company of Ashley Madison, has confirmed and apologized about an unauthorized entity which attempted to breach the security of their systems but has not established whether or not any information was stolen by the said entity, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The company assured their members that they have secured their websites and have eliminated the unauthorized access points. They also refuted the reports that their "paid-delete" service was not doing what was advertised and have now offered the service for free to all its members.
