Ashley Madison hack: The potential causal effects

With the revelations of huge customer data from infidelity website Ashley Madison, reputation and relationships have been scarred for life and have left people increasingly sceptical towards the Internet due to the insane breach of privacy.

The lists were dumped on Tuesday on the so-called dark Web, and which were only accessible using a specialised browser. However, within sometime, the database was decrypted and made more widely available.

As hackers dumped a big cache of data containing millions of email addresses, concerns around Internet security and data protection have been raised on one hand, and on the other, people of various professions said that the blow to the Toronto-based website firm Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison, has been a boon for them.

The attack on Ashley Madison, which is one of the messiest and most legally troublesome data dumps in history, has resulted in an indefinite delay of the site's IPO plans, leaving people questioning its credibility and most importantly worrying about the potential consequences. Also, questions on whether Ashley Madison could recover from the incident have been surfacing around.

From lawyers to therapists and cyber security firms among others have benefitted largely from the security breach. Prominent divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said it was the best thing that happened to his profession since the seventh commandment forbids adultery in the Bible, reported Reuters.

On the contrary, the degree of public embarrassment and emotional toll is expected to be huge .

Michele Weiner Davis, marriage therapist in Colorado and author of Divorce Busting, sympathised with the victim as well as with their family as she recollected the devastating effects of the attack. She believes although the initial reaction to revelation would be anger, which with time is likely to heal, but the feeling of betrayal would leave an indelible mark on their lives.

Dr B. Janet Hibbs, a psychologist and couples therapist in Philadelphia, said that people have to “fall on their sword” if they are keen on saving their relationship. "Be prepared for them to ask a lot of questions, to not be defensive, to be compassionate,” she added.

The attack is all set to ruin the reputation and dishonour members from U.S. government services for as many as 15,000 email addresses were reported to be from government and military ones, if found to be real. Under certain criteria, it can even lead to their discharge or imprisonment.

While the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Canadian police investigate what the company believes was an inside job, lawyers speculated whether any aggrieved members would launch legal action against the company, which claims to be the world's second-largest dating website behind Match.com , owned by IAC/InterActive Corp.

The email address of a British parliamentarian, which was included on the list, said it had been used without her knowledge, thereby indicating that being a member doesn’t necessarily implicate an individual.

Still, the privacy intrusion has taught people a lesson for their lives, making them question the data they have stored on the Internet. However, it remains unclear as to how many of the clients are legitimate because verifying email IDs was not necessary when users sign up.

Within hours of the Ashley Madison hack, several people created tools to let users search for email addresses in the data, but it's not always clear how these tools are working, how accurate they are, or whether they are recording such search attempts, reported BBC.

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