So the Ashley Madison leak...

[Buckshot]

I'm a bit lost on how to perceive it... good or bad?

Yes, it's criminal exposure and malicious to do that to corporate entities, much less it's customers. Yes, peoples personal information was exposed, lives/careers/families ruined (which probably would have been ruined anyway even without a leak at some point or another). Yes, they were morally wrong for participating in affairs.

So does it fall as "two wrongs don't make a right, or is it "vigilante justice bringing the dark to the light."

More importantly... privacy and security. Is it bad that we can't trust anyone with our info, or is it a much needed reminder to a society that puts too much faith in security that you're never truly safe nor anonymous on the net (not just in this instance, mind you..), or should society have known better, with everything else that happens out there?

Is it socially acceptable to have people outed when they are doing socially unacceptable things online... or is it the hacker who is the only offender here?

your thoughts? Because mine are a bit conflicted in a weird gray area on this.

[Linguica]

It's bad.

[Buckshot]

Linguica said:

It's bad.

I've been reading a bit about the group behind it. It seems they were motivated more to expose the site as a fraud by pointing out the majority female members were bogus profiles deliberately created to inflate male interest (amongst inflating other things) in an attempt to deceive and spike membership... and that the client list was just a side casualty cought in that crossfire to bring that to attention (kinda hard to prove such an acqusation without seeing everything as a whole), and exposing people was only secondary.

I guess that doesn't change the fact though it was indeed criminal hacking and exploitation.

though they could have had attorneys do the same... legally through courts and all I guess.

[Linguica]

Buckshot said:

exposing people was only secondary.

LOL, no.

They didn't release all the user records by accident. They wanted to stir shit and so they did. They can drape their actions in faux-moralistic messages about proving the company was shady, but they still exposed the private lives of millions of people.

[geo]

Buckshot said:

I've been reading a bit about the group behind it. It seems they were motivated more to expose the site as a fraud by pointing out the majority female members were bogus profiles deliberately created to inflate male interest (amongst inflating other things) in an attempt to deceive and spike membership... and that the client list was just a side casualty cought in that crossfire to bring that to attention (kinda hard to prove such an acqusation without seeing everything as a whole), and exposing people was only secondary.

I guess that doesn't change the fact though it was indeed criminal hacking and exploitation.

though they could have had attorneys do the same... legally through courts and all I guess.

Cougarlife was accused of that. It is logical really. Bait people in the door. Generate emails.

While digging through the wiki I found this gem "In 2012, the company was sued by former employee Doriana Silva, who stated that in preparation for the launch of the company's Portuguese-language website, she was assigned to create over a thousand bogus member profiles within a three-week period in order to attract paying customers, and that this caused her to develop repetitive stress injury."

Anyway, I still see it as a credit card net. Users, credit cards, real names, addresses. People wanting to expose morality go about it through methods that don't involve hacking a money site. It could have also been a blackmail deal to the website itself, but everyone dumb enough to try things like that get nabbed by the cops really easily. I remember when someone tried to do it to FaceBook. The cops just nabbed the person at the airport.

So I read there are a lot of government employees that were named in this list. I hope the list is true and not just some angry dude hating on the government.

That Josh Duggart had 2 accounts.

[Obsidian]

Ethics be damned, this is fucking glorious.

[doom_is_great]

It's wonderful. Hopefully many a douche bag will exposed for what they are.

[purist]

There's already been a thread about this. Oh and it's a bad thing, but I don't have sympathy for any party in this (the company has an odious business practice, the users should be ashamed and the hackers deserve whatever punishment they get if they're uncovered).

[Shaviro]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to throw logic, caution and common sense to the wind whenever there is a chance to moralize over someone whom they know absolutely nothing about.

[Gez]

Buckshot said:

So does it fall as "two wrongs don't make a right, or is it "vigilante justice bringing the dark to the light."

Little bit of both; though honestly mostly the former.

[Doomkid]

Obsidian said:

Ethics be damned, this is fucking glorious.

+1. You got a problem with your relationship? Be a fucking human being and try to fix it or move on.

With that said, I think this could have been done in a much more tactful and frankly less intrustive way, but... Yeah. No sympathy for filth.

[FireFish]

Linguica said:

They can drape their actions in faux-moralistic messages about proving the company was shady, but they still exposed the private lives of millions of people.

[PsychoGoatee]

It's not strictly for cheating, for one. And I've heard it advertised by Kevin Smith on his podcasts a few years ago, and he's a pretty cool guy.

It's a dating site to some degree. So if your whole moral point is the cheating thing, plenty of people who are not involved in cheating also had their info exposed.

[Doomkid]

Their slogan is literally "Have An Affair - Guaranteed - At Ashley Madison." Another one being "Married Dating & Discreet encounters."

Wikipedia had this to say: "Ashley Madison is a Canada-based online dating service and social networking service marketed to people who are married or in a committed relationship. Its slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."

Releasing user credit card information was wrong, however exposing them by name was not, far as I'm concerned. That's what I meant when I said it could have been done in a more tactful way - As is, the hackers are just as bad as the entity they're attempting to dismantle.

Still pretty firm on that "no sympathy" standing. Before anyone makes ridiculous comparisons like "U WOULDN'T SAY THAT IF DIS WAS EBAY OR SUM SHIT", yes you're right, becuse you don't have to be scum to use eBay.

Letting people know their spouses are unfaithful bags of shit was more than enough - Releasing anything else was overkill. I still find the whole thing goddamn hilarious though. Anyone who wants to waste their tears on the downfall of scumbags is free to, of course.

[Springy]

Well, shit it looks like I'll have to sign up elsewhere...

On a serious note, I'm with DK on this one. You have to be a real pathetic excuse for a human being to throw away something special. Yes, it is a shame that card details were unmasked but I am glad those vile beings got ousted as the uncommitted scum that they are. If you can't keep your cock in your pants when the honey hits town then you shouldn't even be in a relationship.

[VGA]

Doomkid said:

Their slogan is literally "Have An Affair - Guaranteed - At Ashley Madison." Another one being "Married Dating & Discreet encounters."

Wikipedia had this to say: "Ashley Madison is a Canada-based online dating service and social networking service marketed to people who are married or in a committed relationship. Its slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."

That makes my blood fucking boil. I hope some assholes and whores got exposed real good.

[printz]

This is why everything needs to be encrypted, even on the database. But I guess the governments and militaries won't let us, due to some surveillance and security shit.

I find it already dubious that all my data is in clear text on the cloud, with the merely legal guarantee that the app owners will never peek. But criminals and hackers don't listen to the law.

Somehow I want more cracks like this to keep coming, so there will be a movement for better encrypted data in general.

[dew]

It's a laughable spectacle with precisely no one to feel sympathy for. Schadenfreude all around!

[geo]

printz said:

This is why everything needs to be encrypted, even on the database. But I guess the governments and militaries won't let us, due to some surveillance and security shit.

I find it already dubious that all my data is in clear text on the cloud, with the merely legal guarantee that the app owners will never peek. But criminals and hackers don't listen to the law.

Somehow I want more cracks like this to keep coming, so there will be a movement for better encrypted data in general.

Not only encrypted, but not available on a public server. Public modifications can be taken at the end of the day to a non Internet computer (I know lolz) and changed there to prevent breaches.

Passwords are encrypted.... depending on the system. I've been in some systems (of clients) that have their passwords right there in text format with no encryption, in fact some you can see from the public by typing in the URL to the data file with their password. But Ash Mad, a 15 year old site would never have technology that old. Surely the millions they make can afford encryption.

Of course even encryption don't need to be broken with ex employees. Just having access, because when they're released or fired, yet no one bothers to change the old employee's password or delete their administration account. I've been in systems with employees that STILL have passwords, when they haven't worked for the company 5 years. Delete those things or change the passwords.

What's hilarious is I've seen encryption that have 128 characters = 1 real character. So sdfjlajkldafjlksdaf;jlsdaflsjkl = a. It only takes a find function to start figuring out what they are. Some websites have their cyphers in plain view once you access the website. So with the cypher, you can break the encryption. Even if a could mean asdljsdflj;sdalj; or it could mean sldfajlsdjsdfjjksd; as long as you have the cypher you can break it. Then make a program to break the others.

Another thing is standardized encryption rather than your own custom encryption. Standardization gets a lot of eyeballs and hackers. So there's more people trying to break it. Once its broken, everyone else finds out so websites that use the standardized encryption will have security breaches left and right.

That's why again, I say do not have the credit card or social security information on an Internet capible computer.

[HavoX]

Why did it have to be her? What did she ever do to them? She doesn't deserve to be treated like shit.

[Kontra Kommando]

It is bad, and people who steal information should be punished severely.

[dew]

Kontra Kommando said:

It is bad, and people who steal information should be punished severely.

Then why isn't the entire NSA locked up yet?

[Reisal]

It's hilarious yet bad there are .gov and .mil addresses in that leak..

[Buckshot]

I want to say these people are victims I guess... but they're also incredibly lowlife for doing this shit to begin with.

Of course, I can't argue hacking is any better of a offense, and encouraging it for any purpose, whether malicious or with good intentions, is still criminal regardless of intent.

I do beleive it just encourages it abroad, and any person will try to justify the action as for some purpose to expose corporate wrong doing in some fashion... other examples being Bradley Manning and Edward Snowdens leaks. I get what they're trying to prove... but it was the absolute wrong way to expose that sort of thing, especially coming from people who were contracted and swore to retain privacy on that data (that was in fact their job)

While I don't approve of cheating and secret maritial affairs... generally that's a private agenda when the cheater is cought. it's taken up between the spouse and it's only internally humiliating within that family. They decide how to move on or rectify the situation if it can be resolved, which when brought to public attention not only disparages the cheater for the rest of time, but also publicly humiliates the spouse who wasnt and children who have to deal with that everywhere they go. Especially in this circumstance... as digital is forever... it will follow everyone in that family forever.

[Cupboard]

Let's remove all sexist barriers associated with polygamy and allow women to take multiple male partners and vice versa, pass some laws that allow children to be raised safely in a polygamous household and not within the confines of a religious cult or become the sole responsibility of one member of the marriage. Then we can resurrect the institution of polygamy in an ethical form. This will also provide an outlet for all the sex addicts out there who can find each other and not harm their partners who are committed to monogamous marriage.

[Aliotroph?]

It was irresponsible to create a website that would be a huge target with so much collateral damage potential. I don't know the circumstances of the users, so I can't say whether it was wrong for them to have affairs in most cases. Releasing so much data was even more irresponsible. Some people are shitheads.

I don't care about seeing individuals punished for whatever they do to their marriages. Way too many people handle marriage shitty for me to see it as anything but a statistic. The one good that might come of this is it might take the wind out of the sales of the moralistic religious types if they see enough of their own caught up in the scandal. They'll keep up their nonsense babble, but maybe fewer people will pay attention. Probably not, though.

As much as I said the website was wrong and the hack was more wrong, the results from analyzing the data should be neat.

[Zed]

I wanted to post my opinion but I just can't stop laughing.

[VGames]

What religious types are u talking about Aliotroph? Christians? If they haven't gained true salvation through the 3 methods provided in the Bible then they were not ever Chrisitans. these people who got busted such as the son from 19 kids and counting were merely "Christians". They did not practice Apostolics. Therefore they fell short. Study up before u spread you're ignorance about what a Christian actually is.

[Cupboard]

All he said was "moralistic religious types". That doesn't even mean he has to be talking about people that believe in a single god. So he is generalizing. You are not generalizing, you are taking offense on behalf of people that are not even being persecuted in this topic.

[VGames]

My mistake I thought he was referring to the son from 19 kids and counting since he's pretty much been at the front of this scandal as far as an individual goes and he's "Christian". Didn't mean to attack. Just meant to clear up that "Christian" thing.