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The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#501

Post by simoncion »

Balgair wrote: post #470
simoncion wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> True, but giving the gov your blackmail file ... You misunderstand me. If you're blackmailable , you shouldn't be holding a TS clearance. If you're granted a TS, and later become blackmailable, you really should have your clearance revoked.

But, if the gov has your blackmail file, then you are by definition not able to be blackmailed. What am I missing?

That's not quite it.

Blackmail is possible when one has a secret that one really does not revealed to some set of parties. If you reveal that secret to your employer, but still fear its disclosure to other parties, then you are still blackmailable.

If you don't fear the disclosure of the personal secrets you've revealed to your government employer, then you also don't particularly care about your government employer's systems getting breached and revealing those secrets to the world. Might you be mad as hell at the incompetence? Sure! But your risk of blackmail is not increased because of the disclosure because you weren't blackmailable to begin with.

Make sense?

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#502

Post by PhasmaFelis »

fweespeech wrote: post #336
antillean wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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…

> Is it that simple? Yes. The legal system is responsible for bringing criminals to justice. The system maybe imperfect but its better than vigilantes with a deeply held, righteous cause who honestly believe their targets to be evil. Fanatics of all stripes see themselves in that light and that kind of thinking is extremely dangerous. In truth, it should only be used in the event a blood revolution is the only option…

If we say that it is never acceptable for vigilantes to release illegally-obtained information, then shouldn't we also be decrying Ed Snowden and Chelsea Manning? Their dumps certainly contained unpleasant stuff that could be traced back to individuals. There's got to be a line somewhere, even if it's not at Ashley Madison specifically.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#503

Post by PhasmaFelis »

tbrownaw wrote: post #252
antillean wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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, coe…

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

The hell they don't. Talk to someone who was not only abused, but knows that there are unwilling photos of their abuse circulating online for sadists to jerk off over. Psychological trauma is a real thing.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#504

Post by PhasmaFelis »

camillomiller wrote: post #111
dsacco wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The elevation of monogamy and closed relationships as the God-given natural status of a couple is the source of too many problems. Same for not living our own sexuality in the open. By acting like this (that is: like you are supposed to) you are constantly prone to blackmail. If you happen to have a wife that is entitled in her social-induced belief that even thinking about other women is good ground for the terminat…

> The elevation of monogamy and closed relationships as the God-given natural status of a couple is the source of too many problems.

Don't pretend that monogamy is purely socially constructed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with consensual open relationships, and we'd all be better off if the taboo against them went away, but there is definitely something wrong with making a promise to someone you love about something that matters to them and then breaking it behind their back.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#505

Post by PhasmaFelis »

hlfw0rd wrote: post #303

Strange, I would expect hackers to be the first to reject the silly social construct of monogamy. I think this is ridiculous and nearly pointless. The only benefit I see is exposing how carelessly ALM handled personal data. However, they could have accomplished this while still blinding the data. Edit: Not sure why this warrants downvotes..

I'm downvoting you because it's ridiculous to say that monogamy is purely a social construct. It genuinely matters to some people, even if they're okay with polygamy as a general concept. There is nothing wrong with consensual open relationships, and we'd all be better off if the social stigma around them went away, but consensual is the key word. It's not okay to promise someone monogamy and then break your word behind their back.

Do not assume that the way you feel about something is the one true correct way and anyone who disagrees has been brainwashed by The Man.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#506

Post by grogenaut »

swagswag wrote: post #458
grogenaut wrote: post #95

I remember back in the day (2010) when I asked pandora in email to "NEVER PLAY ME AN ADD FROM THAT SCUZZY COMPANY AGAIN"... they replied that "we only play PG ads and we vet all adds so they are appropriate to all audiences. no apologies, just "you're wrong dude". I cancelled my account and I wasn't asked to cheat on my wife on a 30 minute basis after that.

You still together just wondering?

yep

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#507

Post by monochromatic »

tronreg wrote: post #500

This is hacker news bitches, y'all should be into this shit. "Ashley Madison" is a company dedicated to profiting from people lying to their spouses. Lighten up on the data privacy aspect and cheer your anonymous bros for bringing some justice.

Hacker != cracker

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#508

Post by BrandonMarc »

in3d wrote: post #93

I'm not sure if people realize how significant this hack is. We just might have seen the first public hack that will cause people to die or be physically hurt. Homosexuality is illegal in certain countries (like Saudi Arabia) and this hack might expose people to harm in these countries. Some reactions of spouses might also be violent. It looks like the reaction of most commenters is very different compared to when Ga…

> We just might have seen the first public hack that will cause people to die or be physically hurt.

When Wikileaks put out the US state dept cables, there were plenty of names of intelligence sources within Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc that weren't redacted. Many of these people were discovered and killed immediately.

Alluded to here: http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/07/28/murphy-rides-...

... and here: http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/08/03/just-us/

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#509

Post by bagels »

illyism wrote: post #196
bagels wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to know this too. I remember seeing a talk by Facebook on Youtube by their security team that they will download these datasets to see if Facebook users have used the same passwords so that they can protect accounts. It would be unfortunate if this was less than legal.

How is Facebook able to do this if the passwords are hashed in a different manner? Are they storing passwords in plain text?

This was mostly about weakly hashed, or not hashed passwords. I realize that it may not apply to this particular dataset.

Re: The Ashley Madison Database Was Leaked

#510

Post by tripzilch »

ZeroFries wrote: post #391

I think we can all agree that privacy violations are wrong. Therefore, only by preventing a greater harm can something like this be considered justified. It's too bad a cost benefit analysis is so tricky here. Exposing cheaters could prevent further cheating, but it could also cause serious identify theft. In the end, I think the line is too blurry to seriously justify the breach.

The amount of dickheads (aka the people that actually harmed others or did really badwrong stuff) that will truly end up getting "what they deserve" (in the eyes those who see it that way), is probably going to be a rather small subset of the total amount of exposed dicks on that site, regardless of how broad a brush of wrongdoing you want to paint with.

Even if there is a part of the leaked users that, if I were to know exactly about their situations, I might agree totally deserve to be outed because of their really shitty and reprehensible actions it just doesn't weigh up against everything else:

- This isn't the Jerry Springer show. No matter the level of dickhead move, the outing doesn't need to be this public for the world. If only for the sake of the wronged parties.

- That gay Saudi guy who now risks being put to death because of this leak, and others like him, they chose AM because it advertised secrecy and discretion, which obviously turned out to be a mistake, but whatever the hackers claim their motive is, leaking the data was a much bigger mistake.

- The incredible amount of domestic abuse fallout that this outing is going to cause.

- The children.

- People that got an account for whatever reason but caught themselves as they realized wtf they were about to throw away.

- Relationships that actually worked hard to get through and over a difficult time, now being confronted again, except this time the mess they wanted to put behind them lies out on the streets for everyone to see.

- People that got an account for shits and giggles. Fake names, fake accounts, fake email adresses and anyone getting caught in the shitstorm surrounding this.

I can think of so many more examples of situations getting caught in the crossfire.

And really, you know that a large part of the slimiest dickheads are still going to get away with this, no matter what.

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