Outed Ashley Madison user tip of the iceberg in Mississauga
By
Maryam Shah, Toronto Sun First posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 09:37 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 10:44 PM EDT
He thought he was the unluckiest man in Mississauga.
Turns out, there could be 69,402 others just like him.
The man in question is a married father of one who spoke with the Toronto Sun back in July, when his name was leaked on an infidelity blog.
At the time, a hacker group threatened to leak data about Ashley Madison users. The Mississauga man told the Sun he only looked and never cheated.
Now scores more fearfully join his ranks, as a massive cache of information on Ashley Madison accounts was dumped on the dark web Tuesday.
It then made its way to more accessible parts of the Internet, with rough snapshots of the data appearing on websites.
The Toronto Sun reached out to Jishai Evers of dadaviz.com to break down Canadian numbers based on the data leak.
According to dadaviz.com, Mississauga has 69,403 Ashley Madison accounts, which would represent 9.7% of its population.
Toronto has more accounts on the adultery website than any other Canadian city.
But that doesn’t mean Hogtown is some leading hotbed of infidelity.
Technology analyst and journalist Carmi Levy says infographics based on the data dump are basically quick “snapshots.”
Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media is based in Toronto, so that could skew the rankings, he said.
“You have to look at these numbers with a fairly critical and fairly cynical eye,” Levy said.
The release of the information came after Avid Life ignored hackers’ demands to shut down both the Ashley Madison site and another site called Established Men, which pairs older men with young women. By Wednesday, Avid Life admitted some of the leaked data was legitimate.
But take it all — the leaked e-mail addresses, the accompanying names — with a grain of salt. Anyone could have used anyone’s contact information to sign up.
“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions simply because an individual’s name or e-mail address is included in this database,” Levy said. “There were no checks and balances as part of the data entry process.”
— With files from Reuters
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Outed Ashley Madison user tip of the iceberg in Mississauga | Toronto & GTA | Ne
City of Ottawa e-mails among Ashley Madison leaks
By
Matt Day, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 09:04 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 11:34 PM EDT
Some City of Ottawa employees could be tossing in their sleep until this whole Ashley Madison breach blows over.
If it does, that is.
About 20 city e-mail addresses were included in the leak of nearly 37 million accounts tied to the site that encourages infidelity.
The public embarrassment and emotional toll is likely to be enormous. Millions of marriages could be affected as people are exposed on the web as seeking an extra-marital affair. The breach is so big, the FBI is investigating.
The list, which could be downloaded online by Wednesday afternoon, had at least one Ottawa city worker on edge when contacted by the Sun.
"Don't you use my name. I'll come and hunt you down if you do," said the employee, before abruptly hanging up the phone.
The person acknowledged signing up for the site, but was adamant there was no wrongdoing.
"I was just searching, that's it."
An awkward pause followed.
"I should have deleted it a long time ago. I never thought it would come out."
Unfortunately, tech-savvy spouses don't have to look too far to find what names were released.
Another city employee, who chose to only be identified as Michael, said he used his city e-mail address to sign up for the service 10 years ago when his marriage was falling apart.
"I was going through a divorce, but I never did anything with it. I never paid anything. I was just curious," he said.
"It was probably foolish of me to use that e-mail account, but I used it for everything. We didn't have smartphones back then so I put all my correspondence through one address."
Michael said he never visited the site at work and figures Ashley Madison is probably blocked on their server. In fact, he said he hasn't visited the site in years.
"I figured right from the start the thing was bogus. Seriously, how many women are going to sign up for this?"
In a blog post, cybersecurity expert Rob Graham of Errata Security said men outnumber women on the site by just under five to one.
Another city employee whose e-mail appeared in the leak said he never signed up for the service, but is a member of dating sites eHarmony and match.com.
"I'm a single guy," he said, adding it could have been a practical joke played on him as to why his e-mail appeared.
"Guys play jokes like this all the time, so no, I'm not worried about this leak."
Meanwhile, divorce lawyers in Ottawa are getting ready to step up to the plate now that the Ashley Madison accounts have been leaked.
Alison Boyce of Delaney's Law Firm said although she doesn't condone the hacking of privately-owned websites, her firm is expecting a surge in business.
"It is a big story and unfortunately there is going to be a lot of revelations in a lot of marriages," she said. "We're prepared and the doors are open."
It is believed that 189,810 -- yes, nearly one in five of the city's population -- of Ashley Madison's millions of subscribers are from the nation's capital. Granted, some of those e-mails are fake or bots, but it's nearly impossible to figure out how many.
Twitter: @mattdaymedia
City of Ottawa e-mails among Ashley Madison leaks | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun
