Ashley Madison Info Is Now Available. Is Your Spouse Cheating On You?

Now you can search the Ashley Madison cheaters list

By Jose Pagliery   @Jose_Pagliery

It was only a matter of time.

The stolen database of 32 million people who used cheating website Ashley 
Madison has made its way to the Web. And it's easily searchable on several
websites.

Just plug in a name or email address,
and you'll find out if someone who
signed up for the service.

CNNMoney is not linking to these
sites directly, but they can be found
via regular Web searches -- if you
know exactly what to look for.

Usually, hacked data is difficult to reach or sort through. Stolen files
 are posted on the Dark Web (which requires a special
web browser called Tor). And they're traded on file-sharing
 platforms (which also requires special software and clicking
 on dubious downloads).

But now anyone can check if his or her spouse was cheating --
just by filling out a form.

Someone has even created a custom Google Map that
displays some of AshleyMadison.com users' addresses
registered with the website.

Some people were idiotic enough to sign up using company and
government work email addresses, making them especially easy
to positively identify. Our quick review found 6,904 addresses
linked to the Canadian and American governments, plus
another 7,239 in the U.S. Army, 3,531 in the Navy, 1,114 Marines
and 628 in the Air Force.

But it's difficult to verify the accuracy of these searching tools.
But at least one tool, which searches by email address, returns
 accurate results. CNNMoney verified this by plugging in email
addresses of users it has independently verified.

The danger of being exposed is real.

Many of the cheaters exposed in this hack serve in the U.S. military,
 evident because they used email addresses that end in the .mil
domain. Adultery does, in fact, violate Uniform Code of Military
Justice. It's a prosecutable offense that can land you a year in
confinement and a dishonorable discharge.

What about people who used Ashley Madison to engage in
gay affairs? The website's users were worldwide, and there are
 79 countries where homosexuality is illegal. In Afghanistan,
Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates, the punishment is death.

A quick search of a small subset of Ashley Madison users
 listed two in the United Arab Emirates. Their addresses are
 most likely legitimate, because they were tied to the credit
card they used to pay for the service, according to one
computer researcher.

This is what Tim Cook was talking about earlier this year 
when he said we don't live in a post-privacy world. Absolute
 privacy of data still matters.

The Ashley Madison hack includes customer names,
credit card data, physical addresses and sexual preferences.
Some users were smart enough to use fake names.
 But financial data is legitimate. And in total, the data makes
it easy to hunt someone down.

One of the search tools that lets you find people who used Ashley Madison's website.

This information is incredibly revealing. For example, the
 database shows if a person was listed as a married "male
seeking male" with a "someone I can teach" sexual fantasy l
ooking for a "boy next door." Or an "attached female seeking
male" with a "spanking" fantasy seeking "a Don Juan."

The listed sexual fantasies range from master/slave relationships
 to cross dressing and exhibitionism.

This hack proves that you need to exercise extreme caution
if you're going to share your deepest, darkest secrets. Using
your real name or payment information is a hazard. No website
is impenetrable. Few websites practice good security standards.
 Even major American banks use second-rate security.

AshleyMadison.com had it even worse. As a hive of cheaters,
 it has long been the antagonist of betrayed spouses. It was an
inevitable target for hackers. And the company behind the website,
 Avid Life Media, knew it couldn't protect user data.

That's why, in the fine print, Ashley Madison says, "We
cannot ensure the security or privacy of information you
 provide through the Internet." Compare that to the lofty
promise it makes on the website front door for "100% discreet service."

Is your information on the dark web?