Security News > 2020 > February > Ashley Madison: The Impact of Some Data Breaches Is Forever

For individuals whose personal details were exposed, the impact of a data breach may last forever.

Witness the 2015 data breach of extramarital dating site Ashley Madison, perpetrated by a group calling itself the Impact Team, which leaked 30 GB of data about subscribers.

Vade Secure says victims receive an email that includes a password-protected PDF, which "Includes additional info from the Ashley Madison data breach, including when the recipient signed up for the site, their username and even interests they checked on the site when seeking an affair."

Thanks to the Ashley Madison breach and Impact Team leaking customer data, creating these types of shakedown emails requires nothing more sophisticated than some low-level mail merge work - plus, of course, a propensity to try and scam individuals out of bitcoins.

For victims of the OPM breach, as with Ashley Madison and countless other data breaches, the risk posed by their personal information now being at large will last forever.

News URL

https://www.inforisktoday.com/blogs/ashley-madison-impact-some-data-breaches-forever-p-2859