14 DAY TRIAL // It's been so long since the Ashley Madison hack that we've all pretty much forgot about it, but the waves of that earthquake are still being felt. More specifically, a blackmailing campaign was just launched, using information of members of the famous site.
According to ZDnet, a group with a Ukranian top level domain is sending out threats by using Ashley Madison information.
"On May 1 2017 we are launching our new site - Cheaters Gallery - exposing those who cheat and destroy families. We will launch the site with a big email to all the friends and family of cheaters taken from facebook, linkedin and other social sites. This will include you if you do not pay to opting out," the blackmailing email reads, making it clear that they're giving these people a way out of it.
They even go as far as to add details from these people's profiles to show they're serious and they know who they're talking about. The payment is in Bitcoin, of course, costing people about $500 at current value.
A potential recurrent theme
Since the full data trove is on the dark web, however, there's no way to know who will try to extort you next. Pay this group off and, in a few months, they can pose as another group, or another group altogether may "steal" the business model and try to get some money from you.
It all started in July 2015, when a group of hackers stole user data from Ashley Madison, a site that was famous for enabling extramarital affairs. They threatened with releasing personal information of the users, including identifying information, if the site was not shut down. A 25GB trove of data was leaked anyway, including user details, sparking a massive scandal at the time.
Some 86% of the site's users were men, although the numbers may be higher, with many of the women that had registered an account not even bothering to check the site after the initial login, as a Gizmodo analysis showed at the time.