Background Information
The commercial website, Ashley Madison was a site that allowed extramarital affairs to be conducted through their company. Accounts created on the site were unable to be deleted unless the account holder paid a deletion fee. Many people paid the charge in order to delete their accounts, but it was found that the company never deleted the user information. This was discovered through the Ashley Madison hack by the hacker group that call themselves "The Impact Team". The Impact Team stole the user information from the database of Ashley Madison in July 2015.
The Impact Team
The Impact Team is a hacker group that targeted the company, Avid Life Media. ALM owns Ashley Madison and the Impact Team planned on exposing all the user information to public in attempt to make a statement of being against such actions.
Effect on Society
The data breach on Ashley Madison had a major effect on society. The people who were using the company in secret were affected the most, some members even comitting suicde in fear of having to face their spouse with the truth. People who found their spouse using the site were also affected, relationships and families being broken. It even affected people who had no affiliation with the site, simply hearing about it. Knowing that companies publically lie is degrading for society and it gives people fear about security of their own accounts whether it's through social media or through other various websites.
What Does Privacy Mean
Privacy is one of the most important things of society. Without it, people are afraid of being judged by others or are worried of random people being able to discover information all about them online. That's why many things are based around security and protecting people's information to guarantee their engagement with their product or company.
Social Implications
The hacker group planned on condoning Avid Life Media for supporting themes of extramarital affairs, however this was not their only motive. The Impact Team also wanted to expose ALM for their lies of deleting accounts for the deletion fee. Many people paid, yet ALM kept all the data nonetheless. The hackers wanted to show how a major company was deceiving their customers.
Effect on Myself and How to Protect Myself from Getting Hacked
The hack has a major impact on me because it shows how capable some people are of accessing all your private information that you thought was safe. I was also shocked to find out that a major company was able to lie to their customers, especially with a topic like this. Learning from this, to protect myself from getting hacked is by making sure to use trusted sources, ignoring suspicious companies, and avoiding situations that deal with giving out all your personal information.
Example of a Member of Ashley Madison
The state rep. of Georgia, Allen Peake, confessed to opening an account on Ashley Madison several years ago. This is an example that no one is completely safe online, no matter how much power or how little power you have. Allen Peake discussed with his friends and family about the situation. "[T]he truth is that several years ago, I was on this site during a very difficult period in my marriage. It was stupid and I was an idiot for going on there. Two and a half years ago I told her about every detail of my involvement on this site. Through tears and heartache, much pain and anguish, and with intense professional counseling, we made the decision to work to save our marriage. Her powerful and merciful gift of forgiveness helped us make it through some very dark and lonely days, and come out the otherside with a stronger relationship and marriage. Forgiveness is indeed life-changing, and miraculous."