Ashley Madison Hack Reveals Many Civil Servants Seeking Adulterous Fun

Aug 20, 2015

Scientists working in a top secret British defence laboratory and at least one woman MP are among hundreds of public servants are among those claimed to have been revealed as users of the hacked adultery site Ashley Madison.

If true, their use of such site would be a serious breach of government security, with The Telegraph claiming it's spotted 124 civil servants, 92 Ministry of Defence staff, around 50 police officers, 56 NHS workers, 65 local education and school staff and 1,716 people at universities and further education colleges among the leaked data.

On Monday, a shadowy group called Impact Team put on the so-say Dark Web the entirety of the firm's customer base - 37 million users worldwide, including 1.2 million Brits.

The personal details leaked are claimed to include customer addresses, ages, phone numbers, credit card details - even, reports the paper somewhat pruriently, "sexual fantasies of users".

Its reports say they have seen details of two workers at Porton Down, the highly secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

Newly-elected SNP MP Michelle Thomson, a newly-elected SNP MP, also found her details had been published, but said a hacker had used an old email address of hers to access the site, and she had never visited Ashley-Madison herself.

There could be real risk now, says the paper, of individuals being blackmailed now their details have come to light - let alone the damage that may not be wreaked on personal relationships.

The paper predicts that senior civil servants from the Ministry of Defence, Home Office, Ministry of Justice and other government departments are now likely to be called before Parliament to explain how such highly sensitive details of their staff got into the public domain.

Tim Loughton MP, a member of the Home Affairs select committee, said: “This is very worrying on a number of fronts. as if people in sensitive government positions are using government email addresses to register on such a sensitive website, then clearly it raises serious questions about their judgment, but if, as looks possible, government email accounts in what should be secure departments are this vulnerable to being hacked or impersonated that raises its own serious security issues.

“What more serious or malicious means could people be using them for? This is something the committee needs to have a look at.”