It appears that hackers have released 10 gigabytes of data stolen from Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people.
Hackers claim to have distributed the personal information on 33 million accounts via the dark web and it is now being pored over by security researchers, among others.
Many, including security expert Brian Krebs, believe the dump is genuine.
What data has been released?
The BBC has not independently verified the authenticity of the dump, but those who have investigated it so far have said it contains users’ names, addresses, phone numbers, encrypted passwords, and 36 million email address. Online security magazine CSO is also reporting that the leak contains over 15,000 government or military email addresses (ending .mil or .gov).
However, having a personal email address linked to an account doesn’t mean that person is really a user of Ashley Madison. Users are able to sign up to the site without responding to an email verification, meaning anyone’s email address could have been used to create an account.
Indeed, an SNP MP whose email address appears in the list has denied ever using the site.
