Despite the recent hack that exposed 33 million users’ personal information and the CEO stepping down, the Ashley Madison dating site for adulterers continues to grow, according to owner Avid Life Media.
In August 2015, a group of hackers calling themselves the Impact Team, released personal details of millions of members and emails from Noel Biderman, the website’s CEO. Maintenance schedule and an office layout were also included in the leak, leading John McAfee, software creator of McAfee Antivirus, to believe it was an inside job rather than a group of outside hackers. He also speculates that it was a woman who released all of the data because in one of the Impact Team’s manifestos, the writer refers to men as ‘scumbags’ and discloses the names of two men who joined the site the day after Valentine’s Day. McAfee came to this conclusion by carefully examining through 40GB of leaked data.
Even with all of the breached security information available to the public, the site continues to drive traffic, with thousands of new users allegedly signing up.
“This past week alone, hundreds of thousands of new users signed up for the Ashley Madison platform—including 87,596 women,” according to a statement from Avid Life Media.
The company also noted that women have sent more than 2.8 million messages within the platform, and the ratio of males who paid to communicate versus females is 1.2 to 1.
“These numbers are the main reason that Ashley Madison is the number one service for people seeking discreet relationships,” the company said.
Prior to the hack, Ashley Madison and Avid Life Media had plans to float on the stock exchange this year in London, with hope to raise up to $200 million. With the continuous growth of the website despite the breach, the company may just be able to reach its goal.
Source: BBC
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