TORONTO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Avid Life Media, the company
behind infidelity website AshleyMadison.com, confirmed on
Wednesday that some legitimate data has been stolen from it and
published online, but said it has never stored credit card
information on its servers.
Hackers dumped a massive cache of data about Ashley Madison
users online late on Tuesday, posting it on a part of the
Internet that is only accessible by using a specialized browser.
Lists of email addresses quickly popped up in more
accessible parts of the Web, threatening to wreak havoc on
relationships across the globe.
The release of the information came a month after a breach
of Ashley Madison security was first reported, and after
Toronto-based 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.
"There has been a substantial amount of postings since
the initial posting, the vast majority of which have contained
data unrelated to AshleyMadison.com but there has also been some
data released that is legitimate," Avid Life spokesman Paul
Keable said in an email.
"Furthermore, we can confirm that we do not - nor ever have
- store credit card information on our servers," he said.
Several security experts have said that people they know,
who are Ashley Madison members, have found their names in the
leaked data, with partial credit card details attached.