The hacking of the big extramarital dating site Ashley Madison has just been noisily talked about again. Impact Team has indeed carried out its threat by publishing data from 36 million accounts. Almost two thirds of them are associated with email addresses.
As often after such data releases, online tools allow you to query the leaked database. This is the case with ashley.cynic.al or Trustify (also for hacking Adult Friend Finder). Via these dedicated search engines, users can find out if a specific email address is present in the database.
Given Ashley Madison's field of activity, some may want to know if the email address of a companion or an acquaintance is listed. Victims caught with their hands in the bag will then regret not having used a disposable or specially dedicated email address.
While the authenticity of the leaked data is confirmed and even if many profiles are manifestly false, this precaution has been taken by Ashley Madison users if we judge by the recurrence of Yopmail addresses for example.
The ashley.cynic.al tool, however, matches its results with a warning to underline that some people may have accidentally or deliberately registered with the wrong email address.
Specializing in monitoring the Dark Web, sites frequented by hackers and data leaks, the French company CybelAngel has recorded some 15,000 addresses in .gov or .mil belonging to individuals working for the government or the American army. These professional email addresses are therefore very specific.
In Le Figaro, CybelAngel specified the presence of nearly 260,000 email addresses in .fr, including thirty in .gouv.fr.
Some online tools go further than email addresses to include location data, sexual preferences or even credit cards found in the leak. In a new press release, Avid Life Media (owner of Canadian-based Ashley Madison) writes:
"Complete credit card numbers of current or past members have not been stolen from Avid Life Media. Any claims to the contrary are false. Avid Life Media has never stored full credit card numbers of members."