Friday, May 24, 2024
ADVT 
National

Leaked Data Can't Be Linked To Specific Members, Ashley Madison Says

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 21 Aug, 2015 12:33 PM
    TORONTO — Personal information about Ashley Madison clients exposed in a massive data breach this week doesn't prove their infidelity, the adultery website said Thursday as it took pains to reassure nervous members and suspicious spouses.
     
    The company investigating the breach for Ashley Madison confirmed the website doesn't verify email addresses used to sign up for the service, nor does it collect phone numbers or store full credit-card numbers.
     
    "This means that anyone could have used any email address to sign up for an account," Joel Eriksson, the chief technology officer for Toronto cyber-security company Cycura, said in an email.
     
    "So a list of email addresses is not proof of anyone's membership."
     
    He added that Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison's parent company, doesn't check the authenticity of email addresses, precisely to ensure no account can be conclusively linked with a specific person.
     
    "By not having email verification, users have plausible deniability with regards to their membership status," he said.
     
    "Note that verification of email addresses are mostly relevant to sites that harvest personal information as a part of their business model, and want to tie each user to an identity. In this case, that would not be in the best interest of either the users nor (Avid Life Media)."
     
    People can speculate based on the data leak, Eriksson added, but there's no smoking gun.
     
    Scouring the data for familiar names or email addresses among the site's more than 35 million registered members has become a popular pastime for worried spouses and curious Internet users worldwide.
     
    There are hundreds of email addresses in the data release that appear to be connected to federal, provincial and municipal workers across Canada, as well as to the RCMP and the military.
     
    Cycura is investigating the breach along with the FBI, RCMP, OPP and Toronto Police Services.
     
    Eriksson says the source code used by Avid Life Media is being audited for "vulnerabilities and backdoors" though it doesn't appear that any software vulnerability was exploited in the breach.
     
     
    Ontario government technology experts are also looking into the leak after dozens of provincial email addresses were linked to Ashley Madison account-holders. Provincial officials say if any civil servants used their work emails to set up their Ashley Madison accounts, that would be considered a misuse of government IT resources.
     
    Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur's office says "information and technology officials are looking into whether any misuse has occurred."
     
    A spokesman for the Manitoba government said the province has a policy stipulating that "employees must not access Internet sites that might bring the government of Manitoba into disrepute." Those who violate it may face disciplinary action that could include dismissal.
     
    Two law firms are attempting to launch a class-action lawsuit against Ashley Madison's parent company. Their lead plaintiff is an Ottawa man who joined after his wife of 30 years died. The proposed class action alleges the privacy of thousands of Canadians was breached.
     
    South of the border, The Associated Press reported that hundreds of U.S. government employees — including some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and law enforcement agencies — used Internet connections in their federal offices to access and pay membership fees to Ashley Madison.
     
    The federal workers included at least two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. counterterrorism response team.
     
    Few actually paid for their services with their government email accounts. But the AP traced their government Internet connections — logged by the website over five years — and reviewed their credit-card transactions to identify them.
     
    They included workers at more than two dozen Obama administration agencies, including the departments of State, Defence, Justice, Energy, Treasury, Transportation and Homeland Security. Others came from House or Senate computer networks.
     
    The AP did not name the government subscribers it found because they are not elected officials or accused of a crime.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Steven Sabados Not Returning To 'Steven And Chris' After Death Of Chris Hyndman

    Steven Sabados Not Returning To 'Steven And Chris' After Death Of Chris Hyndman
    TORONTO — Steven Sabados won't be returning to the CBC-TV show "Steven and Chris" after the death of his husband/co-host Chris Hyndman.

    Steven Sabados Not Returning To 'Steven And Chris' After Death Of Chris Hyndman

    B.C. Forests Minister Looking For Video To Help Solve Wildfire's Cause

    B.C. Forests Minister Looking For Video To Help Solve Wildfire's Cause
    British Columbia Forests Minister Steve Thomson says officials are looking for a video that apparently shows how a massive wildfire that has destroyed 30 homes in the province's southeast was sparked by a flicked cigarette.

    B.C. Forests Minister Looking For Video To Help Solve Wildfire's Cause

    Statistics Canada Says Consumer Price Index Up 1.3 Per Cent From Year Ago

    Statistics Canada Says Consumer Price Index Up 1.3 Per Cent From Year Ago
    OTTAWA — The increased cost of filling a grocery cart over the past year was more than enough to offset a drop in the price of putting gas the car, according to the latest inflation report from Statistic Canada.

    Statistics Canada Says Consumer Price Index Up 1.3 Per Cent From Year Ago

    Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre Unveils Plan For Taxi Industry

    Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre Unveils Plan For Taxi Industry
    "The whole taxi industry is now ready to turn the corner," Mayor Denis Coderre told a news conference Thursday as he released details of the plan.

    Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre Unveils Plan For Taxi Industry

    Public Servant Fired After Five Phoney Resumes As Government Tackles Fraud

    Public Servant Fired After Five Phoney Resumes As Government Tackles Fraud
    A federal worker lost her job earlier this year for fudging her resume in five different applications for various jobs in the public service.

    Public Servant Fired After Five Phoney Resumes As Government Tackles Fraud

    Bill C-24, The New Citizenship Law, Treats Naturalized Canadians As Second-Class Citizens?

    Bill C-24, The New Citizenship Law, Treats Naturalized Canadians As Second-Class Citizens?
     A new law that gives the federal government the power to revoke Canadian citizenship for certain dual nationals undermines the country's identity and violates its Constitution

    Bill C-24, The New Citizenship Law, Treats Naturalized Canadians As Second-Class Citizens?

    PrevNext