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Ashley Madison is a website owned by a company called Avid Life that allows married people to search out partners for extramarital affairs. The site collects all of the personal information that any other website would collect including names, addresses, and credit card numbers. It is the kind of information that the Ashley Madison customer base would like to keep confidential at all times. But the website was recently hacked and now millions of people are wondering if their marriages are about to come to an end.
A hacker organization called the Impact Team claims that it has collected the private information of millions of Ashley Madison members and it is prepared to release that information if Avid Life does not shut the Ashley Madison website down immediately. Avid Life also owns a website called Established Men where young women can find older men to finance their every heart's desire in exchange for whatever the young women feel is appropriate. The Impact Team wants that site shut down immediately as well.
The Story Behind Ashley Madison
The Ashley Madison website was launched in 2001 with the catch phrase "Life is short. Have an affair." Over the years, the site claims it has accumulated around 37 million paying members, but that growth came to an abrupt halt in late July 2015 when the hack occurred.
Avid Life has been trying to expand its business through investors and advertising, but its controversial business model has consistently been a problem. In 2009, the company tried to purchase a Super Bowl advertisement, but the NFL denied their application. Avid Life even tried to buy the naming rights for Giants Stadium in New Jersey, but it was denied that as well.
Recently, Avid Life has been trying to raise the funds to go public, but it is finding it difficult to convince investors to get involved. While the company is having some success in Europe, it is not finding many takers at all in the United States. With the recent hack, the stall in new memberships means that even European investors will more than likely walk away.
Another controversial business practice of Avid Life was its policy of charging every customer $20 to completely delete their profile. The practice is so lucrative that Avid Life claims it pulled in around $1.7 million in 2014 alone from the deletion charges. The Impact Team claims that the deletion service does not work and that it will release deleted accounts along with all of the other information. Needless to say, there are a lot of former and current Ashley Madison clients who are very nervous.
Is There Really A Market For This Type Of Service?
According to PsychCentral.com, one out of every four relationships will experience some sort of infidelity at some point in time. That means that there are millions of people out there who are looking for an extramarital affair and the Ashley Madison site provides them with the services they need. Controversial or not, the Ashley Madison website has an audience it appeals to and that audience is large.
What Does This Mean To People Who Are Not On Ashley Madison?
The Impact Team is performing a type of corporate blackmailing that is similar to what hackers tried to do in December 2014 when Sony was preparing to release the movie "The Interview." Hackers got into Sony's network and threatened to release sensitive information if the film depicting the assassination of the leader of North Korea was released.
In the end, the hackers released the information anyways and the movie was given a limited release in theaters and a worldwide release on the Internet. The Sony incident shows how damaging corporate blackmailing can be and it is something that can affect everyone. If a company you rely on for certain services is suddenly put in a position to either stop providing those services or have its sensitive information released, then you could find yourself looking for a new service provider.
The other issue stems from the ongoing discussion regarding the real security of the Internet. In the past two years, there have been significant breaches into huge databases that have compromised the information of millions of people. The Ashley Madison hack shows that even companies that build their reputation on the safety of their information can find themselves at the mercy of hackers. It is a situation that has caused many people to rethink how much they trust the Internet and how much information they are willing to put on cyberspace.
Will the Impact Team release the Ashley Madison information? As of this moment, Avid Life is not even convinced that the Impact Team has a great deal of information to release, and it looks like it is ready to call the hacker's bluff. But is that really the attitude people want a site built on extramarital affairs to take? How many people are sitting on the edge of their seats wondering if they will be exposed as cheaters? It looks like Avid Life is willing to take the chance and that could be a very bad decision for the future of the company and its customers.
A hacker organization called the Impact Team claims that it has collected the private information of millions of Ashley Madison members and it is prepared to release that information if Avid Life does not shut the Ashley Madison website down immediately. Avid Life also owns a website called Established Men where young women can find older men to finance their every heart's desire in exchange for whatever the young women feel is appropriate. The Impact Team wants that site shut down immediately as well.
The Story Behind Ashley Madison
The Ashley Madison website was launched in 2001 with the catch phrase "Life is short. Have an affair." Over the years, the site claims it has accumulated around 37 million paying members, but that growth came to an abrupt halt in late July 2015 when the hack occurred.
Avid Life has been trying to expand its business through investors and advertising, but its controversial business model has consistently been a problem. In 2009, the company tried to purchase a Super Bowl advertisement, but the NFL denied their application. Avid Life even tried to buy the naming rights for Giants Stadium in New Jersey, but it was denied that as well.
Recently, Avid Life has been trying to raise the funds to go public, but it is finding it difficult to convince investors to get involved. While the company is having some success in Europe, it is not finding many takers at all in the United States. With the recent hack, the stall in new memberships means that even European investors will more than likely walk away.
Another controversial business practice of Avid Life was its policy of charging every customer $20 to completely delete their profile. The practice is so lucrative that Avid Life claims it pulled in around $1.7 million in 2014 alone from the deletion charges. The Impact Team claims that the deletion service does not work and that it will release deleted accounts along with all of the other information. Needless to say, there are a lot of former and current Ashley Madison clients who are very nervous.
Is There Really A Market For This Type Of Service?
According to PsychCentral.com, one out of every four relationships will experience some sort of infidelity at some point in time. That means that there are millions of people out there who are looking for an extramarital affair and the Ashley Madison site provides them with the services they need. Controversial or not, the Ashley Madison website has an audience it appeals to and that audience is large.
What Does This Mean To People Who Are Not On Ashley Madison?
The Impact Team is performing a type of corporate blackmailing that is similar to what hackers tried to do in December 2014 when Sony was preparing to release the movie "The Interview." Hackers got into Sony's network and threatened to release sensitive information if the film depicting the assassination of the leader of North Korea was released.
In the end, the hackers released the information anyways and the movie was given a limited release in theaters and a worldwide release on the Internet. The Sony incident shows how damaging corporate blackmailing can be and it is something that can affect everyone. If a company you rely on for certain services is suddenly put in a position to either stop providing those services or have its sensitive information released, then you could find yourself looking for a new service provider.
The other issue stems from the ongoing discussion regarding the real security of the Internet. In the past two years, there have been significant breaches into huge databases that have compromised the information of millions of people. The Ashley Madison hack shows that even companies that build their reputation on the safety of their information can find themselves at the mercy of hackers. It is a situation that has caused many people to rethink how much they trust the Internet and how much information they are willing to put on cyberspace.
Will the Impact Team release the Ashley Madison information? As of this moment, Avid Life is not even convinced that the Impact Team has a great deal of information to release, and it looks like it is ready to call the hacker's bluff. But is that really the attitude people want a site built on extramarital affairs to take? How many people are sitting on the edge of their seats wondering if they will be exposed as cheaters? It looks like Avid Life is willing to take the chance and that could be a very bad decision for the future of the company and its customers.
