Infidelity website Ashley Madison's data 'leaked'

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the investigation into the data breach on infidelity website Ashley Madison, after hackers reportedly released stolen information from its 32 million users Tuesday.

The release is said to include millions of payment transactions, email addresses and phone numbers of people who were registered on the dating site, with the company's owner saying it would hurt “innocent citizens”.

The data dump comes a month after the information was stolen by hackers identified as the "Impact Team" who allegedly tried to shut the site for cheaters down "permanently.”

The group had previously threatened to release salacious details on its millions of customers, including records, nude pictures and conversations, if the site wasn't closed.

Ashley Madison's website, known for its slogan "Life is short. Have an affair," helps connect people seeking to have an extramarital relationship and is owned by company Avid Life Media.

The hacker team appeared to follow through on its threat by releasing 9.7 gigabytes of data on what is known as the "dark web," a hidden part of the internet inaccessible to conventional search engines, tech magazine Wired reported.

"We have explained the fraud, deceit, and stupidity of ALM (Avid Life Media) and their members. Now everyone gets to see their data," the group reportedly wrote as it released the information Tuesday.

Hackers appointed themselves as 'moral judge, juror and executioner'

Avid Line Media, based in Toronto, Canada, has now confirmed for the first time that the FBI had joined the investigation alongside the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local police.

The company, which condemned the initial hack as a "criminal intrusion," said Tuesday that the hackers had appointed themselves as "the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society."

"These are illegitimate acts that have real consequences for innocent citizens who are simply going about their daily lives," it said.

Among the data that appeared to have been released on Tuesday was a user writing: "I'm looking for someone who isn't happy at home or just bored and looking for some excitement," Wired reported, also noting that some 15,000 users in the data included government or military email addresses.

Within hours, thousands of email addresses from North America and Europe, including many linked to corporations and universities, appeared on other sites as people decrypted the database.

mh/shs (AFP, Reuters)