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The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#141

Post by Absentinsomniac »

dgfv1 wrote: post #128
tptacek wrote: post #2

The response to this this on Twitter would be beyond fucked- up if it weren't so completely predictable. People are posting direct links to the dump, screenshots of lists of emails, and statistics for classes of domains. The general reaction to the availability of the dump is reasonably characterized as "glee". But no matter what you think about Ashley Madison --- and I think A.M. is so comically scummy that I had tr…

I'm obviously a dick because I already sent automated messages to relatives of people in the hack indicating to them that they were potentially cheated on. Personally I would want to know so I share that information.

How would you even get relatives contact information automatically...

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#142

Post by fencepost »

systematical wrote: post #76

Is there any information on how they were hacked? I'm more interested in how they were compromised than anything else.

IIRC it was taken by someone who worked there as a consultant. There were more details back at the time it was first disclosed.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#143

Post by dagw »

xxs wrote: post #94
nothrabannosir wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not about rainbow tables, just about brute forcing. The only theoretical protection would be a site salt, but that has to be stored somewhere as accessible as the database, so it's fruitless to assume somebody who can get their hands on your db can't get the site salt. "It’s important to note that salts are useless for preventing dictionary attacks or brute force attacks. You can use huge salts or many salts…

Adding the salt increases (albeit linearly) complexity of hashing w/ regard to brute forcing. So using a very long salt reduces hash speeds.

There are much better ways of reducing hash speed. Like hashing N times.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#144

Post by david-given »

dang wrote: post #16
tedunangst wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are never the infidels. Only "they" can be infidels.

Is there a word for things that only other people can be? The one that always comes to mind is "tourist".

It's 'outgroup'.

There's a really amazing post here about outgroups and the distorted way we reason --- or fail to reason --- about them. It's a bit long, but totally worth the read.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything...

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#145

Post by dgfv1 »

Absentinsomniac wrote: post #141
dgfv1 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm obviously a dick because I already sent automated messages to relatives of people in the hack indicating to them that they were potentially cheated on. Personally I would want to know so I share that information.

How would you even get relatives contact information automatically...

The database contains full addresses, names. You can easily find who is cohabiting with them fairly reliably (near 100% if they live in a house) through a variety of services which list that information.

All I can say is there's going to be a hell of a lot of blackmail. I'm sure there's already a group on IRC organizing blackmail. There's a lot of targets and it's very information rich.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#146

Post by fencepost »

duncan_bayne wrote: post #40
duncan_bayne wrote: post #37

There's something poetic about people who use an Internet based service to commit adultery being exposed by crackers. With luck the fallout will break Ashley Madison too.

Repost from a different, and now I think abandoned, thread: I'm curious - I keep getting downvoted whenever I criticise Ashley Madison on the grounds of morality. Why is this? This isn't a whinge about downvoting (if I didn't want to get downvoted I wouldn't keep posting about A-M), but a genuine inquiry into the reasons. Is it that people see discussions of morality as off-topic for HN? Do people disagree with my mo…

I know one person that I suspect would be in there if I bothered looking. If he did have an affair I'm sure he'd have been thrilled for his wife to find out, since they were very attached before the stroke and vegetative state.

I admin email systems. Not my place to judge.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#147

Post by TeMPOraL »

lentil_soup wrote: post #140
yummybear wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people in here (I assume) think Snowden's leaks were ethic, though illegal. The reaction to The Fappening was likewise equal parts glee and disgust. Almost nobody would blink an eye at revealing a doxxing dump from a terrorist sympathizer or CP forum. Ethics are a subjective thing, and lines are hard to place.

I think the line is on whether it's a personal/private matter and when it's not. The NSA is a government agency, so what it does is in the public interest. A guy planning to bomb something is also by definition affecting the public so exposing that is also in the public interest. This hack, the fappening and similar are completely personal and private so they are of no concern to anyone but the people involved in it.

Agree, though one could argue that what AM is doing is an explicit attempt to damage the basic building block of society, i.e. family. So this becomes somewhat a matter of public interest then.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#148

Post by DanielBMarkham »

in3d wrote: post #119
nitrogen wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know of any other hack that had such an impact in the past. The US OPM hack is probably of a similar impact due to its larger scale.

True, this OPM hack might have a huge national security impact.

Does anybody need to restate the obvious: Go through the OPM leak and cross-check everybody with TS-SCI clearance with the AM database. Bingo-presto, big list of folks you can blackmail to do government favors. Take about 2 minutes.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#149

Post by dagw »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #147
lentil_soup wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the line is on whether it's a personal/private matter and when it's not. The NSA is a government agency, so what it does is in the public interest. A guy planning to bomb something is also by definition affecting the public so exposing that is also in the public interest. This hack, the fappening and similar are completely personal and private so they are of no concern to anyone but the people involved in it.

Agree, though one could argue that what AM is doing is an explicit attempt to damage the basic building block of society, i.e. family. So this becomes somewhat a matter of public interest then.

one could argue that what AM is doing is an explicit attempt to damage the basic building block of society

Sure, but one could also argue the same about per-marital sex, divorce and homosexuals.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#150

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

daemin wrote: post #8
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like, you know who has a stronger opinion about wrongdoing than people who dislike infidelity? The people who picket abortion clinics. Also: there's a neat parallel to the NSA here, in that a substantial portion of the users registered for A.M. probably haven't been unfaithful, and are getting "dragnetted" up with the people who have, because who's going to take the time to sort that out?

Was there ever any requirement that one be in a relationship to join the site? I'm sure more than a few would have joined, while pretending to be in one, and subsequently have started a relationship.

I always thought it would fun to join when I was single.

Then I could be accused of being a dishonest immoral monster when my hookups discovered I wasn't really married.

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