Emails sent by the founder of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com appear to have been exposed in a second, larger release of data stolen from its parent company, cyber security experts confirmed on Thursday.
The data dump by hackers who have attacked the site appears to include email messages linked to Noel Biderman, founder and chief executive officer of its Toronto-based parent company Avid Life Media.
In a message accompanying the release, the hackers said: “Hey Noel, you can admit it’s real now.”
That appeared to be a riposte to the company’s initial response to Tuesday’s dump that the data may not be authentic.
The earlier dump exposed millions of email addresses for customers of Ashley Madison – whose tagline is ‘Life is short. Have an affair.’ – including for U.S. government officials, UK civil servants and executives at European and North America corporations.
The U.S. Defense Department and Postal Service is also investigating the alleged use of military and other government email accounts on the site.
Former reality TV star and family values campaigner Josh Duggar admitted to cheating on his wife after reports he had subscribed to the site.
Executive Director of the Louisian Republican party Jason Doré told the Times-Piscuyune paper he was on a list of accounts because the site was used for “opposition research.”
Doré said an account was created under his name and his former personal credit card billing address in connection with the work of his law firm, Doré Jeansonne. He declined to say who he was using the account for.
In a sign of Ashley Madison’s deepening woes following the breach, lawyers have launched a class-action lawsuit seeking some $760 million in damages on behalf of Canadians whose information was leaked.
Eliot Shore, a widower who lives in Ottawa, is suing Avid Dating Life Inc and Avid Life Media Inc, the corporations that run Ashley Madison.com, law firms, Charney Lawyers and Sutts, and Strosberg said in a statement.
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He joined the website “for a short time in search of companionship”, but never met anybody in person, they said in a statement.
