Ashley Madison - The Dating App with the Biggest Data Breach

Online dating has come to be a popular choice for those hoping to fill that need for romance. But not only are singles looking to mingle. There are married individuals looking for what is missing in their relationships as well. In came Darren Morgenstern in 2001 with his solution, a dating website called Ashley Madison.

Ashley Madison was one of the dating apps that targeted a very different type of clientele from the other dating apps out there. Their well-known tagline "Life is Short. Have an Affair" can give you a good clue as to who they were trying to sign up. That is right, married men and women.

The documentary gives you the startup of the site to the fallout of the data breach they had when Noel Biderman was CEO. The documentary shows that dating apps like Ashley Madison can lie when promising you that your information is secure, because in July 2015, Ashley Madison's information was hacked!

As the employees came into work that day and were told not to use their computers, they were left wondering what happened. They would quickly find out that hackers were demanding that the site be shut down permanently. At that point, like other dating apps Ashley Maddison was bringing in considerable income of about a quarter million dollars a day according to the documentary.

People had many ideas about who the hacker may be. Some thought it was a religious zealot. The dating app was promoting adultery so that was a possibility. Others thought may be an angry spouse or former employee. The hackers called themselves The Impact Team and they were threatening to release the names and very personal information of 37 million users.

Ashley Madison did not shut down. The hackers made true on their promise and released the information on users that Ashley Madison had promised secrecy to. The Netflix documentary shows how the media was in a frenzy with all the scandal the data was causing. People were making searchable lists, others were blackmailing individuals, and many were secretly worried about if they would be the next to be publicly outed. Many public figures were outed as they were being found in the data leak.

As the scandal was causing crisis everywhere, The Impact Team struck again. This time they leaked information that contained private company emails and other data. Now both employees and the dating apps members were affected.

The documentary shows the effects the data breach had on some couples. For some, they already knew, and things were okay. For others, the effects were devastating. Trust was broken, divorces were filed, and even some lost their lives due to suicide.

The information that was revealed was stunning. Ashley Madison had faked security awards on their site. They promised to completely delete the accounts if an extra fee was paid. These promises were lies.

It was also revealed that many of the women were not real. Many female profiles were bots or company employees. The bots would send out messages that the men paid to read and respond to. More and more lies so that revenue could be increased.

And CEO Biderman who was all over television with his wife and talking about his monogamous marriage was not only outed for lying about data security but also for being a cheater. He resigned that same year.

After all the drama and destruction Ashley Madison caused, they are still active and promoting their slogan, "Life is short. Have an affair."

Written by CreativeMe