Right now, the Ashley Madison hacking scandal is at level ten for cheaters who went online to find a like-minded cheater. Though those who signed up online for infidelity should be the most panicked, we all should stop chuckling and see what can be learned from this hacking crime.
As reported earlier this week in the Inquisitr , over 30 million users of the Ashley Madison cheating site are at risk for having their cover blown . Over 50 thousand of those users are in the country’s center of political power, Washington, D.C.
Ashley Madison Website Hacked http://t.co/9jrrGINrDY #WhatDoYouThink ? pic.twitter.com/pRFqbvCHxZ
— The Onion (@TheOnion) July 21, 2015
Forbes is reporting that as a society, we need to look beyond giggling about cheaters getting caught, and think about what this means for the rest of us who do business online.
“The first lesson, of course, is one you should have already learned: not only are all organizations vulnerable to attack, but they have already been attacked. You shouldn’t be asking when an attack might occur. You should be asking how long have the hackers been inside your network and how best to mitigate further damage.”
Forbes stresses that hackers are thieves, vandals, and sometimes, as in the case of Ashley Madison, extortionists. John McAfee, who is in the business of security software, says that despite Ashley Madison’s claims that their network is secured, they are still at risk , as are many other large internet businesses.
Rather than chuckle at those who shaking in their boots about an affair, think about the scope of the potential for those who hack for extortion and blackmail . The Impact Team said if Ashley Madison was not taken offline, they would start revealing names, identification, and their cheating profiles, with intimate likes and dislikes. A Massachusetts man is the first unlucky fellow to be exposed in the Impact Team’s latest manifesto. The information is very personal.
According to the Enterprise, out of Massachusetts, A Brockton man’s name, email address, home address, and fantasies were published on the Ashley Madison site today. Expectedly, the press has flocked to his door for an interview, but nobody is answering at the published address.
Do you think Ashley Madison is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hacking?