Five years after one of the highest profile hacks, Ashley Madison users continue to face hardships when it comes to securing their information online.
In a recent revelation, the 32 million records stolen in their 2015 breach are now being used in what is known as sextortion. Sextortion is essentially the process in which hackers use social engineering to steal information and essentially blackmail their victims into compliance or face their dubious internet history being released to the public. Unfortunately, unlike most scams, these are more legitimate as the website has been notorious for their less than savory clientele.
With these accounts linked to actual credit cards, the breach is coming back to bite the people affected. According to Vade Secure, the Ashley Madison breach “is "coming back to haunt users in the form of a highly personalized extortion scam.” The emails sent to victims of the breach are littered with personal details from the breach itself. Given the nature of the site, these emails are highly personal and embarrassing and revisit a scandal that led to family breakdowns and even suicides in the immediate aftermath.”[1]
As with any breach, once your data is taken its out there. You need to protect your identity and your information vigorously or else you could be held at ransom by nefarious actors.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/02/01/ashley-madison-hack-returns-to-haunt-its-victims-32-million-users-now-have-to-watch-and-wait/#4d44fa105677