The AshleyMadison.com scandal is salacious to be sure. The website’s motto is “Life is short, have an affair.” The members paid for the website to facilitate their having affairs with impunity. A few weeks ago, hackers known as “The Impact Team” posted the identities of millions of the website’s married members from all over the world after the site refused the hackers’ warning to shut down or face broadcast of the information. At the same time, according to an article on Huffpost Business, AshleyMadison.com’s owner, Avid Life Media, a Canadian company, noted that its membership “engages in fully lawful online activities” and stating about the hackers that “The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society. We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world.”
Due to the criminal nature of the hackers’ actions, the Toronto Police Service created a hotline for leads regarding the hackers which includes a phone number, email address and Twitter handle with direct messaging capabilities. The police have received leads from all over the world. Individuals who have been the victims of blackmail or extortion attempts because their names are on the Ashley Madison database should contact their local police to file a police report. The local police department should then forward the report to the Toronto Police Service. According to the Canadian authorities, they are working closely with police agencies from all over the world on this case, including the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
With the hackers having released members’ names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and other relevant information, civil attorneys are reporting that people are contacting them asking to know about their civil remedies. A case in Alabama has been filed for one client as a “John Doe.”