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The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

krebsonsecurity.com

251–260 of 527 posts

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you're being downvoted here. Sites like you describe will undoubtedly pop up around this dataset.

Denial is a powerful thing, and at this point there are people who still think the genie can be put back in the bottle. I'm just being rational about how these things always go. Quite aside from the inevitable, very quickly built search apps, we'll have infographics galore about the population set of users.

There's a difference between largely anonymous groupings of data and disclosing PII.

I think dumping the member information with email addresses, profile information could happen. Just verifying emails is already happening.

But the CC info with last four digits, addresses, names, etc. might be hard to keep visible for any length of time.

The Adult Friend hack wasn't as high profile as this one, but has largely been benign.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> God-given natural status The "God reasoning" isn't the only reasoning. Just like polygamy is a choice, so is monogamy. It's a sexual choice. What is wrong is that people can't be open about that choice. People should be able to be open and honest about being polygamous or monogamous with their partner - yes, that might sometimes result in the relationship ending; but there's a good chance where there is a disagreem…

> "Either way, debate about polygamy vs. monogamy in this case-scenario is completely irrelevant. Someone was hacked, privacy was violated (it doesn't matter what privacy) and that is the end of that. There's no reason to attach another argument to the discussion because the hack was an outright violation in the first place." Is it that simple? Would the outright violation of a hack be the end of the story if we were…

Pictures don't hurt anyone (except sometimes in the libel/slander sense).

But don't stolen credit cards get traded online? Or other impersonation / "identity theft" information? Maybe a marketplace for one of those would be a good example.

.

The trick is probably making sure that "something that we all agree is wrong" matches with things that actually harm people who didn't freely agree to it. Things like murder, coercion, kidnapping, breach of contract, ...

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#253
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…

One source of your frustration is that you're viewing all the individuals on Twitter as if they're a single entity that's also adamantly against profiling. "how do you make a case that it's unethical for dragnet traffic..." You're assuming they also hold other popular views you've seen on Twitter, then calling them hypocrites.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#254

Perhaps this - at last - leads to people only submit personal data to websites who have their data encrypted in their database and a certified to have done that.

I think it's much more likely that people will take additional precautions for themselves. Things like multiple email addresses, one-time-use credit card numbers, and VPNs will (very) slowly grow because of this.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#255
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…

> and I think A.M. is so comically scummy that I had trouble believing it was a real thing

Reddit AMA - https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3dy732/i_worked_at_as...

"We had one guy I'll always remember. His wife was in an accident and stuck in a wheelchair, unable to do anything. She forced him to join the site and encouraged him to find a woman he could have sex with. He ended up finding partners that would last a couple years at a time and it worked very well for them. "

It's great that you're calling people out. But I'd just stick with people deserve to have private lives, whether you agree or disagree on how they spend it.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#256
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…

While I have generally approached this in an analytical fashion (e.g. this has happened, the data can no longer be stopped, and here are the inevitable outcomes), your outrage is a bit over the top, and I would say over-reaching for a moral high ground. Further you seem to engage in the same sort of extrapolation that has someone declaring being shushed in a movie theater to a slippery slope violation of their first amendment rights.

Comparing the hacking of a infidelity hook up site with government mass monitoring is dubious.

Ashley Madison is not a dating site. It was always, from day one, a site specifically and only for infidelity (earning it millions worth of free advertising via notoriety). The entire rise of that web property came on the backs of the notion that the site wasn't for open marriages or more casual/relaxed notions about sex -- activities that many people engage in with little risk or concern -- but for people who wanted higher risk engagements, whether outside of their own relationship promises, or with parties acting outside of their own relationship promises.

because you suspect most of them might be "guilty" of the crime of "marital infidelity"

Scare quotes aside, moral compasses are personal and vary between us. And the reality is that there are millions of relationships where there is infidelity, often with both parties knowing about it, but more often with one or more party in the dark. It's a risky venture and any of countless things can out one's activities, which in this case is a data dump, making people a victim, truly, of their own actions. It's not hard to imagine why many people may have "glee" about this, as it's somewhat more difficult to find the innocent parties in the churn.

Though I will note that you are being very consistent (I would say to an overly rigorous extent). To address some of the other comments, the parent poster is one of the few people on here who actually very strongly disapproves of what Snowden did (if I recall correctly), so there is no inconsistency. The NSA was a victim, the argument went, of Mr. Snowden's crime.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a word for things that only other people can be? Kinda along similar lines: expats vs. immigrants. "Oh no, Paul and Iza are expats . Not at all like those job-stealing immigrants who moved in next door..." (aside: does wrong fit your original question?)

This isn't a valid example. "Expat" is a very specifically defined term in the vernacular of people that live outside of their home countries: it means a person that moved to another country for a specific job (usually because they were recruited into that job). Expat is a sub-class of immigrant; not all immigrants are expats, but all expats are immigrants. Also, despite what people that make this argument try to cla…

Wikipedia somewhat agrees with you, saying:

> In common usage, [expatriate] is often used in the context of professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies.

A Guardian writer disagrees, saying "expat" means "white immigrant":

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-...

Personally, I think "expat" is used more in the sense of an (usually white) immigrant from a richer country to a poorer country. EG, an Indian recruited to work at Google in San Francisco would be an expat by your definition but I think most people would use the term "immigrant." Conversely, I'd expect the term "expat" to be used for an American white guy who was travelling the world after getting laid off, impulsively decided to stay in Bangkok, and now does freelance web design, lives in a nice neighborhood, and hangs out mostly with Americans and Europeans.

I am not saying I think this is how the term should be used, just describing my experience with it.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#258
post #4
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…

This is a great comment, Thomas. I had an argument with my girlfriend about this. No matter what reasoning I used, no matter what I said, she could not agree that it was wrong that Ashley Madison (A.M.) was hacked. Her position was that marital infidelity is such a pubishable offense that the participants on A.M. deserve to be publicly outed. In her view, it was not even up for debate. She felt so powerfully about in…

I wonder how she would feel if she was addicted to narcotics, went to NarcAnon and then had her name published when someone leaked/hacked their database because "those people shouldn't have done drugs in the first place". Or replace NA with AA.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#259
post #128
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.

Personally I wouldn't want to know.

We have an actual agreement on this, me and my wife: try not to cheat, but if it happens, do everything to keep the other from knowing.

What you don't know can't hurt you -- or at least that's the basis for our arrangement for monogamy between fallible humans. I've heard many arguments for and against it -- the point is that it's OUR arrangement, and YOU have nothing to do with it.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#260
post #4
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…

This is a great comment, Thomas. I had an argument with my girlfriend about this. No matter what reasoning I used, no matter what I said, she could not agree that it was wrong that Ashley Madison (A.M.) was hacked. Her position was that marital infidelity is such a pubishable offense that the participants on A.M. deserve to be publicly outed. In her view, it was not even up for debate. She felt so powerfully about in…

What is her opinion about stoning people to death for adultery? Because for some involved, I imagine, it would be more desireable outcome than the one they will be facing now.
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