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15,000 government emails revealed in Ashley Madison leak
The Hill ^ | 08/19/2015 | Cory Bennett

Posted on 08/19/2015 9:00:06 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Thousands of clients using the affair-oriented Ashley Madison website listed email addresses registered to the White House, top federal agencies and military branches, a data dump by hackers revealed.

The detailed data, released Tuesday, will likely put Washington, D.C., on edge. The nation’s capital reportedly has the highest rate of membership for the site of any city.

Indeed, more than 15,000 of the email addresses used to register accounts were hosted on government and military servers.

Buried in the list are emails that could be tied to multiple administration agencies, including the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, as well as several tied to both the House and Senate.

For a month, hackers using the name “Impact Team” have been holding hostage the dating profiles of those who registered on the site. The group threatened to publicly out the potential adulterers if the site’s owner, Avid Life Media, didn’t take down Ashley Madison, which uses the tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair.”

Security researchers said on Wednesday that they believe the data released following the hack at Ashley Madison is authentic.

“This dump appears to be legit,” said David Kennedy, CEO of information security company TrustedSec, which monitors cyber attacks, in a blog post. “Very, very legit.”

Security journalist Brian Krebs reported several of the site’s users told him their real information is in the data dump.

The leaked database is staggering, according to researchers, and larger than expected at 37 million records, or nearly 10 gigabytes compressed.

“For folks that may not know, that is massive,” Kennedy said. “Huge.”

“It's full account information,” said Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security, in a blog post. That includes full names, emails, phone numbers, addresses and passwords.

“It also includes dating information, like height, weight, and so forth,” Graham added. “It appears to contain addresses, as well as GPS coordinates. I suspect that many people created fake accounts, but with an app that reported their real GPS coordinates.”

Other tech news outlets, such as CSO, have discovered British government officials, United Nations employees and Vatican staff among the millions of people in the leaked database.

However, the site reportedly did not check the validity of email addresses, and it’s likely that many of the government email accounts were faked. For instance, several emails were registered at “whitehouse.gov,” whereas White House officials use “eop.gov” for email communications.

The hackers have indicated their mission is to publicly shame the company, while also teaching its users a lesson.

“Find yourself in here?” they said in a statement posted with the data dump. "It was [Avid Life Media] that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ashleymadison; email; whitehouse
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1 posted on 08/19/2015 9:00:06 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Surprised? NOT!


2 posted on 08/19/2015 9:00:49 AM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Another reason to trust our government!


3 posted on 08/19/2015 9:00:53 AM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Govt work is stressful.
Peeps need some relaxation....

How many from @clintonemail.com domain?


4 posted on 08/19/2015 9:02:16 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Not to fear, Hillary wasn’t using a government account.


5 posted on 08/19/2015 9:02:25 AM PDT by fireman15 (Check your facts before making ignorant statements.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Any from clintonmail.com?


6 posted on 08/19/2015 9:02:35 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (If a border fence isn't effective, why is there a border fence around the White House?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Ahhh. Now I see why Hillary wiped her server clean.


7 posted on 08/19/2015 9:04:18 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (With Great Freedom comes Great Responsibility)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Where there goes the IPO.

Maybe we can put together an IPO on Divorce Lawyers, Inc.?


8 posted on 08/19/2015 9:04:35 AM PDT by Fido969
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Government workers watching porn and looking for extra-marital affairs on your dime.


9 posted on 08/19/2015 9:05:02 AM PDT by rllngrk33 (Things will continue getting worse until at least January 2017.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

10 posted on 08/19/2015 9:05:20 AM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Heidi Fleiss is a Hacker?

/s

That’ll teach folks to behave!


11 posted on 08/19/2015 9:05:25 AM PDT by BwanaNdege ("When the left wins, they're in power; when the right wins, they're in office." - Mark Steyn)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

Bill ??


12 posted on 08/19/2015 9:05:27 AM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: Sgt_Schultze

John Roberts, Boehner, McConnell . . .


13 posted on 08/19/2015 9:06:24 AM PDT by Bluebird Singing
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To: nascarnation

14 posted on 08/19/2015 9:06:25 AM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: nascarnation

15 posted on 08/19/2015 9:07:11 AM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Can this get any better? Who needs to watch the fantasy shows when real life is so much more entertaining!


16 posted on 08/19/2015 9:07:23 AM PDT by refermech
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To: Col Frank Slade

His are the ones from

BJ@clintonemail.com


17 posted on 08/19/2015 9:07:32 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

To directly steal a famous movie line...

OH BOY IS THIS GREAT !!!

(Flounder - Animal House)

I bet the Demonrats outnumber the GOPe’s by at least 3-1.


18 posted on 08/19/2015 9:08:27 AM PDT by JEDI4S (I don't mean to cause trouble...it just happens naturally through the Force!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I think the only thing about this that surprises me is my reaction to it ... I simply do not care. Maybe it’s because there is just so much else going on in the world. This just gets a *shrug* from me. Maybe 25 years of Prosecuting and getting old has left me jaded.


19 posted on 08/19/2015 9:09:05 AM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: Col Frank Slade

I’m thinking probably yes


20 posted on 08/19/2015 9:09:30 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (If a border fence isn't effective, why is there a border fence around the White House?)
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