ap | The hacking of the cheating website Ashley Madison has triggered
extortion crimes and led to two unconfirmed reports of suicides,
Canadian police said Monday.
The company behind Ashley Madison is offering a $500,000 Canadian (US
$378,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of members of a
group that hacked the site.
Hackers last week released detailed records on millions of people
registered with the website, a month after a break-in at Ashley
Madison's parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. The
website, whose slogan is, "Life is short. Have an affair," is marketed
to facilitate extramarital affairs.
Toronto Police acting staff Superintendent Bryce Evans said the hack is having an "enormous social and economic fallout."
"This hack is one of the largest data breaches in the world," Evans
said. "This is affecting all of us. The social impact behind this leak,
we're talking about families, we're talking about children, we're
talking about wives, their male partners."
The hackers who took responsibility for the break-in had accused the
website's owners of deceit and incompetence, and said the company
refused to bow to their demands to close the site. The hackers referred
to themselves as the Impact Team.
Evans said the hackers released the entire Ashley Madison client
list, which claims more than 30 million users worldwide. He said the
hackers also sent a taunting message to the company CEO and released his
emails.
Evans said there are confirmed cases of criminals attempting to
extort Ashley Madison clients by threatening to expose them unless
payment is received.
The police official did not offer further details of the unconfirmed
suicides. He also said hate crimes may be connected to the hack but did
not provide details.
Evans addressed the hackers directly, saying their actions are "illegal and will not be tolerated."
"This is your wake-up call," he said.
