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Thursday, July 23, 2015

I guess the end is coming sooner for some folks

Well, I am going to let your imagination run wild as to the personal-apocalypse scenarios possible here.
 
BBC, 20 July 2015 (hat tip: NC)
Customer data has been stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse.
The hackers said they had obtained information including "all the customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions".
The site's operator confirmed there had been an "intrusion" but not its extent.
One security expert said a small percentage of the site's user account data had been published online...
Ashley Madison says it operates in more than 50 countries and has 37 million users, more than a million of whom live in the UK.
It promotes its service with the tagline, "Life is short, have an affair."
The only apocalyptic novel I can recall that involved computer dating was Will McIntosh's Soft Apocalypse.  As I recall the author had done some research on these services.  But I also seem to recall that the scenario they were involved in didn't add much to the book.  This sounds like a much a scenario that could involve a lot more firepower.
 
 
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2 comments:

  1. kymberJuly 23, 2015 at 12:49 PM

    bahahahah! i saw that the site had been hacked in an article somewhere...can't remember where! i told jambaloney as we were sitting at our computers together, and the article stated that they also hacked AM's male-based client site as well. neither of us have ever even heard of these sites but 37 million clients on the female site alone? what the heck is wrong with the world??? oh ya - just about everything!Russell - it's crazy out there...and it just keeps getting crazier!

    your friend,
    kymber

    (p.s. - YOU should write a post-apocalyptic novel that starts with this hacking as the premise. THAT would be awesome!)

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  2. russell1200July 27, 2015 at 5:29 AM

    Kymber: If you read between the lines, it looks a lot more like a site for prostitution. It wouldn't stun me if there were a few subsets of other folks (old style "swingers" for instance) but the sex for money trade would be the one with enough cash involved to keep the electric bills paid.

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