Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal revisits the scandalous dating website’s hack that happened nearly a decade ago. The documentary premiered on the streaming service on May 15, 2024, and looks into the infamous scandal behind the platform. According to The Independent, the online dating service targets married people looking to have an affair.
However, in 2015, a group named The Impact Team hacked into the Ashley Madison website, reported TODAY. They released the names of millions of users who had signed up for an account on the “cheating” website. The documentary revealed that leaked data during the Ashley Madison hack included information from permanently deleted accounts. Hackers also leaked clients’ credit card details, nude pictures, and then-CEO Noel Biderman’s emails. Biderman’s leaked details revealed that he was having multiple affairs.
The Ashley Madison hack caused a huge stir as the list of users revealed included some famous names. Among these individuals was Florida state attorney Jeff Ashton, known for his role in the Casey Anthony case. Per The Guardian, this list also comprised names of celebrities, including reality TV star Josh Duggar. A pastor and professor from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, John Gibson, later committed suicide, reported CNN.
Despite all the controversy following the infamous Ashley Madison hack, the dating website exists even today. TODAY stated that Toronto’s Ruby Life now owns the website and reportedly has over 70 million users.
Who founded Ashley Madison & what happened to the website after the hack?
According to the official Ashley Madison website and BBC, in 2001, Darren Morgenstern founded the Toronto-based dating site. The website’s name came from the two most popular girls’ names at the time. It targeted married users looking to have an affair and was later dubbed the “cheating” website.
The Independent stated that the company’s tagline reads, “Life is short. Have an affair.” It promised users extensive security measures, assuring people that their affairs would remain clandestine. The Netflix documentary revealed that women could register on the website free of charge, per TODAY. Meanwhile, it asked men to pay for the “credits,” which allowed them to send private messages to women. However, Ashley Madison’s self-proclaimed extensive security protocols failed to protect its users from the notorious 2015 hack.
Business Insider reported that Ashley Madison’s popularity maximized after 2007 when Avid Life Media acquired the company. Canadian businessman Noel Biderman, who became the CEO, turned the company into a hundred-million-dollar business and generated at least $115 million in revenues in 2014. The Independent added that over 80% of users were rich men and boasted over 37 million users before the 2015 leak from over 40 countries.
Then, in 2015, per TODAY and other sources, a group called The Impact Team threatened Ashley Madison. They asked the company to shut down its services within 30 days and threatened to release users’ private details on the dark web if it failed to comply. The company, upon failing to meet the hackers’ demands, saw a nightmare come to life.
Reportedly, the infamous Ashley Madison hack happened in July 2015. The hacker(s) released details of over 33 million user accounts on August 18 of that year, per CNN and the Austin American-Statesman. This data also included details of former users who had previously paid to create an account but then deleted their profiles. Leaked user names caused a scandal as a majority of these individuals were celebrities, influencers, politicians, or TV stars.
According to TODAY, one of the names released during the Ashley Madison hack was Jeff Ashton, a renowned Florida prosecutor who prosecuted the Casey Anthony case. The Ashley Madison hack list also included TV star Josh Duggar’s name, who was later convicted of child pornography. The hack resulted in two suicides — one such user was a New Orleans pastor and professor, John Gibson. The Guardian stated that Gibson had lost his job at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary on the day he killed himself due to the leak.
BBC reported that other leaked data included 200,000 professional and private emails from CEO Noel Biderman. These emails revealed that Biderman preferred young escorts and had multiple affairs, per The Guardian. Ashley Madison’s former vice president of sales, Evan Back, claimed in the Netflix documentary that the promise of security, anonymity, and safety was just” they said. Back stated, “It wasn’t something we did,” He called it “gambling.”
Per the outlet, the Ashley Madison hack failed to complete its full purpose as the company continues to operate to this day. In August 2015, then-CEO Noel Biderman stepped down from the helm “in the best interest of the company,” reported BBC. Then, in 2017, the firm paid a settlement amount of $11.2 million for a $576m class-action lawsuit that former customers had filed. Toronto-based Ruby Life has now taken over the company’s reins.
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is now streaming on Netflix.
