The Ashley Madison hacked data has been confirmed as real, as reported by the Inquisitr , and as a result, search engines are popping up online, being offered by those who claim they’ve downloaded the data. Other publications have even published some of the leaked email addresses purportedly found in the downloaded data. This article will not publish any identifying information from the Ashley Madison user hack.
A search through trending Twitter terms, such as Ashley Madison database , Ashley Madison search , #ashleymadisonhack and #ashleymadison turn up tweets from those offering all sorts of links to search engines for the data dump. Users would be cautioned not to follow links to unknown websites, however, because it’s unknown if they contain malware or other phishing schemes.
Certain valid-looking websites exist that offer those who want to search for their own email addresses via the Ashley Madison hacked data dump — and they appear to be conducting the search the correct way. Those sites, such as Have I been pwned , force users to subscribe for notifications and verify the email address they are checking in order to discover any hacks that have been found within, due to the sensitive nature of the Ashley Madison data hack.
“Important notice regarding the Ashley Madison data: only those who have subscribed for notifications and verified their email address will be able to discover if they were in the breach due to the sensitivity of the data.”
Trustify also offers a search and protection options for concerned Ashley Madison users.
I’ll probably be mining the Ashley-Madison dump for the next couple days, but here’s some early notes: http://t.co/wVGjhckPmn
— Rob??? Graham? @[email protected] (@ErrataRob) August 19, 2015
However, those adept at navigating the dark web have apparently gone searching through the data dump, because one son anonymously wrote “ I found my fathers email on the Ashley Madison dump ” and asked for advice.
“This is pathetic for me to bring this up on a site such as this, but I do frequent Reddit and I suppose this can be appropriate for me to ask on here. I do not have much people to disclose this topic to. Actually, thinking about it, I have no one to discuss this to. Recently, about 15 minutes ago, I looked up my father’s email in the database after i imported it into Excel. I looked for my fathers email and it appeared within the MySQL database dump. I’m afraid to bring this topic up as I know there will be extreme consequences. I would not even like to think about the s*** that could potentially happen if I were to bring this up to my father or anyone in my family.”
He went on to ask for advice. Some commentators advised the son to speak to his father privately, some warned him that finding his dad’s email address didn’t mean he had an affair, and others told him not to speak of the Ashley Madison findings.
[Image via Ashley Madison]
