High profile men trying to explain their AM memberships

[IIOY]

My headline.  The real one:

Prying eyes, alibis and a global hunt for Ashley Madison users

Two Republican politicians from Louisiana took the initiative and confessed Thursday that their names are on a list of clients for the cheating Web site Ashley Madison. But both were quick to say that while they know what people might be thinking, it wasn’t that, the old “I can explain everything” line.



Louisiana GOP executive director Jason Doré told NOLA.com that an account created under his name and his former personal credit card billing address was used for “opposition research” at his law firm, Doré Jeansonne.



“As the state’s leading opposition research firm, our law office routinely searches public records, online databases and websites of all types to provide clients with comprehensive reports,” Doré said to NOLA.com via text message. “Our utilization of this site was for standard opposition research. Unfortunately, it ended up being a waste of money and time.”



Baton Rouge Metro Councilman Ryan Heck also went for the preemptive strike, admitting on Facebook he “went to Ashley Madison as a joke 5 years ago. Never went back,” he assured his constituents. And why would he need to anyway, he added, with the hashtag “#smokinghotwife.”



A variation of that theme reportedly came from Talab Abu Arar, a Bedouin Arab lawmaker in Israel, whose parliamentary e-mail address was found amid the Ashley Madison data dump.



He had nothing to do with it, he told Israel’s Army Radio. “Someone wanted simply to hurt my good name … it is very annoying.” And besides, like many Bedouin Arabs, he practices polygamy and has no need of Ashley Madison.



“I’m not lacking in women,” he said “with a chuckle,” according to Global News.


And so it was, across the country, across the globe, in the wake of the hack on the Web site for cheaters, which produced a massive leak of names, e-mail addresses and other data purportedly about people who signed up and signed on to AshleyMadison.com, which in turn is now producing a global pry of massive, perhaps unprecedented proportions, and promises of more prying to come by incensed public officials.




The Associated Press reported Thursday that hundreds of U.S. government employees — including some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and law enforcement agencies — used Internet connections in federal offices to access and pay membership fees to the site. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday confirmed to the AP the Pentagon was looking into the list of people who used military e-mail addresses.



Cities across the U.S. are investigating e-mail addresses disclosed by the hack, USA Today reported. In a chart made from Ashley Madison data, Business Insider reveals each state organized by how many dollars they spent on the site per capita. Alabama is No.1, followed by Colorado and Washington, D.C.





Journalists were hot on the trail.



WREG in Memphis reported finding seven Ashley Madison accounts of City of Memphis employees, “six with the state of Tennessee, one with a Shelby County government domain, one from Germantown and eight from the city of Nashville.”



In California, the Los Angeles Times reported, “email addresses on the list included those for employees of the state departments of Transportation, General Services, Public Health, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Industrial Relations and Water Resources, as well as the state judiciary. No elected officials were on the list of government emails,” it reported.



The office of the governor of Illinois, historically a place being investigated rather than doing the investigating, said it would probe the so-far unconfirmed presence of six state of Illinois e-mail addresses and another from Lake County, reported the Chicago Tribune.



In Cincinnati, City Manager Harry Black was trying to determine if being on Ashley Madison with a city e-mail account was a firing offense. “We will look at our Internet-use policy,” he said, according to USA Today.



Internationally, the story was no different.



The Irish Independent reported that it had found in the dumped data “more than 300 email addresses linked to some of the country’s most prestigious” institutions. At least one member of the Irish parliament, it said, “was seeking legal advice after being informed that he is allegedly listed.”



Probably more in need of advice were those whose e-mail addresses ended in the .sa suffix, for Saudi Arabia, where adultery is punishable by death. France24 reported that the “leak monitoring firm Cyber Angel” counted 1,200 e-mail addresses that suggested that “users were connected to Saudi Arabia.”



And in Sydney, Australia, the AP reported, the host of a morning show asked listeners to call in if they wanted their spouse’s names run through a database of data revealed by the hack. A woman did indeed take the bait, saying her husband had been acting strangely since the Ashley Madison story broke.



“The hosts plugged his details into a website and said they found a match,” reported the AP.





“‘Are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me?’ the woman asked, her voice shaking. ‘These websites are disgusting.’ She then hung up.”


link

[Velar Fricative]

[underwaterrhymes]

Ick.

And shame on that radio show - exploiting people for entertainment is really fucking shitty.

[IIOY]

This is basically a witch hunt.  Congratulations, hackers.

[lilafowler]

Eww to Ryan Heck.

[MixedBerryJam]

Aug 21, 2015 8:29:58 GMT -5 lilafowler said:

Eww to Ryan Heck.

Well, at least he hasn't embarrassed his wife.

[ttt]

Aug 21, 2015 8:22:20 GMT -5 IIOY said:

A variation of that theme reportedly came from Talab Abu Arar, a Bedouin Arab lawmaker in Israel, whose parliamentary e-mail address was found amid the Ashley Madison data dump.

He had nothing to do with it, he told Israel’s Army Radio. “Someone wanted simply to hurt my good name … it is very annoying.” And besides, like many Bedouin Arabs, he practices polygamy and has no need of Ashley Madison.

“I’m not lacking in women,” he said “with a chuckle,” according to Global News.

This guy might actually be telling the truth LOL. 

This, however, is not funny at all. It's pretty awful. 

And in Sydney, Australia, the AP reported, the host of a morning show asked listeners to call in if they wanted their spouse’s names run through a database of data revealed by the hack. A woman did indeed take the bait, saying her husband had been acting strangely since the Ashley Madison story broke.

“The hosts plugged his details into a website and said they found a match,” reported the AP.

“‘Are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me?’ the woman asked, her voice shaking. ‘These websites are disgusting.’ She then hung up.”

[aurora]

As conflicted as I'm feeling about Saudi Arabia after finishing Paramedic to the Prince, the idea of anyone being put to death as a result of this hack is really disturbing.

[Deleted]

Is Ashley Madison like your average dating site ? Online profile with photo? Couldn't any person be found out anyway if someone looked for them? (Yes you would have to create a profile)
It just surprised me that high profile people would do this. Can't they call an escort agency?

It also surprises me about the number one location for a date for meet ups off AM is a steakhouse (Canadians the keg)which also surprised me. I assumed AM was all about sex but it is actually about another relationship. Why stay with your spouse? Extramarital sex kind of makes sense. You want to spice things up - I don't know. But a whole new person to talk to, to deal with. Meh. Not me. Or if did want that, I would leave my H.

I guess I have a lot of contradictory questions.

I also think all of it is none of my business. You do you

I also doubt the people that say 'that isn't me. Someone stole my email'. Why was someone looking for your name? You must be a little creepy.
My h joked to me - did you look for my name? The thought didn't even cross my mind. I didn't search anyone

[tres3]

My state rep is on there with his personal email....

[pinkdutchtulips]

Aug 21, 2015 9:53:19 GMT -5 @hannymaren said:

Is Ashley Madison like your average dating site ? Online profile with photo? Couldn't any person be found out anyway if someone looked for them? (Yes you would have to create a profile)
It just surprised me that high profile people would do this. Can't they call an escort agency?

noooo far from your average dating website. they specialize in extra martial affairs, not run of the mill dating.  i was aware of the site, shoot xh once accused me of being on it (i checked for him in the data dump but no luck w/ the one email addy i had for him), but as far as i understood - it was for spouses looking to cheat.

[Deleted]

Aug 21, 2015 14:30:55 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Aug 21, 2015 9:53:19 GMT -5 @hannymaren said:

Is Ashley Madison like your average dating site ? Online profile with photo? Couldn't any person be found out anyway if someone looked for them? (Yes you would have to create a profile)
It just surprised me that high profile people would do this. Can't they call an escort agency?

noooo far from your average dating website. they specialize in extra martial affairs, not run of the mill dating.  i was aware of the site, shoot xh once accused me of being on it (i checked for him in the data dump but no luck w/ the one email addy i had for him), but as far as i understood - it was for spouses looking to cheat.

I know that part. Sorry. Thanks.
I met the founder of AM at my work. Lol.
But I just meant the profiles style. Is is the same?

[Deleted]

I don't get the whole "someone stole my email address" excuse. Why would someone register as you to try to ruin your reputation? Just in case the site got hacked at some point?