Think of the blackmail potential...
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Ashley Madison: Pair 'commit suicide' after being blackmailed over adultery website hack
TWO people are thought to have killed themselves after being blackmailed when their details were released online by hackers of the Ashley Madison adultery website.
Two people have reportedly committed suicide following the Ashley Madison leak
Detectives are probing a wave of extortion and hate crimes following the leak, when the details of 37 million members of the extra-marital affair website were dumped online by cyber-criminals.
A senior officer warned today that the tragic deaths were a "wake-up call" to the hackers about the devastating consequences their actions are having on peoples' lives.
They published the data - including the details of more than a million Britons - as part of a self-proclaimed moral crusade against users of the adultery site.
Superintendent Bryce Evans, the most senior police officer in Toronto, Canada, confirmed that his force have been told of two presumed suicides linked to the leak.
He said: "This hack is one of the largest data breaches in the world.
"This is affecting all of us. The social impact behind this leak, we're talking about families, we're talking about children, we're talking about wives, their male partners."
He said that the leak is having an "enormous social and economic fallout" across the globe and told the hackers: "This is your wake-up call."
The force is investigating how hackers managed to gain access to computer systems at Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc, which owns the Ashley Madison site.
The company has offered a £240,000 reward to anybody who has information which could lead to the arrest of the hackers, who call themselves Impact Team.
A Canadian police spokesman said that the hackers have now released details of the entire Ashley Madison client list and also sent a taunting message to the company's CEO before releasing a selection of his work emails.
He added that detectives are investigating confirmed cases of criminals attempting to extort Ashley Madison clients by threatening to expose them unless payment is received.
The hack has had a devastating effect on families across the globe, with divorce lawyers expecting to be inundated with a flurry of calls from betrayed spouses.
Last week the first divorce proceedings sparked by the dump were reportedly started by a woman in Britain who found her husband's name on the list.
However, a top family lawyer has told Express.co.uk that being registered for the site alone would not be enough to justify a divorce on grounds of adultery in UK law.
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The work email addresses of thousands of government workers - including more than 100 belonging to UK Government employees - were among the details of 37 million users released by hackers following a cyber attack last month.
It is unclear if the email addresses published are genuine, and it is also possible to create an Ashley Madison account using someone else's name and email.
