Ashley Madison North: GNWT Addresses Found

On Thursday, an anonymous source dropped off a list at EDGE. It contained over a hundred NWT and Nunavut email addresses found from searching the latest Ashley Madison data dump. The Toronto-based website, which lets people in marriages or long-term relationships sign up to meet others interested in affairs, has been the subject of a massive hack in which the personal details of 33 million users were dumped online this week.

These addresses all had northern suffixes, such as theedge.ca [an unrelated service provider], ssimicro.com, qiniq.com, gov.nu.ca, and gov.nt.ca. EDGE was able to identify some of the individuals associated with these addresses; they included business owners, teachers, and local media personalities.

Let’s make one thing clear up front. EDGE is going to release the names attached to these addresses, for several reasons.

Primarily, we’re not interested in ruining anyone’s lives over matters of the bedroom, as long as there is no criminal behaviour or abuse occurring.

As well, there are issues around the credibility of many of the addresses and personal data found in this latest dump. It is entirely possible that the website bought bulk email addresses to fatten up its memberships — especially those of women. “The company has been accused in the past of telling its staff to create thousands of fake user profiles, usually of women, to entice men to pay for membership,” reports the U.K.’s Telegraph.

In the data presented to us, however, it was possible to determine which email addresses had received and responded to registration notices — a pretty good sign they were active. As well, the data can tell you if the account using that email address has actually visited the site.

These addresses are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg: they don’t include any of those Northerners who presumably were savvy enough not to use their work or personal emails to set up accounts at a website dedicated to facilitating infidelity.

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As well, our anonymous source told us, the data dump is complete and exhaustive. It includes all information connected to an account, including all payment details, such as the extra fee a user can pay for a “guaranteed affair.” What we were provided with was the most basic scrape of information that can be found in this 10 gigabyte database.

Currently the target of multiple class-action lawsuits around the world, including a $750 million one in Canada, it’s unlikely that Ashley Madison will survive. Now it’s just a question of how many marriages and long-term relationships it takes down with it. The first divorce proceedings related to the data dump have already begun in the U.K., and divorce lawyers across the globe must surely be anticipating a bumper crop this year.

Is there any real takeaway from this, other than you probably should remember that, one way or another, everything you do on the internet you do in public? And that karma can be awfully sticky? Just be careful out there, and maybe, just maybe, don’t use your work email to sign up to a cheating site.

Want to know if you’ve been busted? Check HaveIBeen Pwned, which will tell you if you’ve been compromised in general as well, and searchable databases specific to Ashley Madison at Trustify and cynic.al.

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