• Health
  • Science
  • U.S.
  • Technology
  • Business
  • World
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

Building a Better World

News and information

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team

11 million Ashley Madison passwords posted online

September 12, 2015 By Sam Catherman

11 million Ashley Madison passwords posted online

The passwords to over 11 million Ashley Madison accounts have been revealed, after a hacking group exploited weaknesses in the company's encryption methods.

It’s been nearly a month since the dating website Ashley Madison, advertised as a place to go if you’re looking to engage in an affair, was hacked. According to a report from CNN, however, the details about the site’s practices and users are still flowing in. A recent data dump has revealed the passwords to nearly 11 million user accounts for the site.

The data released by the original Ashley Madison hackers contained a fatal error in the way the company originally encrypted half of the 32 million accounts that were compromised. A password-cracking team of hackers called CynoSure Prime was able to exploit this error and produce the passwords to nearly 11 million of these accounts.

The group noticed two glaring mistakes in Ashley Madison’s encryption of about 15 million passwords. It converted each to lowercase letters, and used a surprisingly weak encryption algorithm to protect the passwords.

According to CynoSure Prime, the encryption tool that Ashley Madison used was significantly easier to crack than more robust versions. It remains unclear as to why the company switched from the weaker version for half of its accounts.

Many of the passwords were easy to guess, including strings of keys like “123456,” “qwerty,” and “password.” Others included “secret,” “helpme,” and “Yamaha.”

Password-guessing algorithms were able to correctly guess many of these common passwords, which could be connected to user accounts on other sites. This poses serious identity theft concerns, and could lead to trouble further down the road for Ashley Madison users.

Sharing

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Filed Under: Front Page, Technology

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow Us

Facebookrss

Search:

Recent Posts

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft makes important course correction May 26, 2018
  • Scientists outraged at latest Trump decision May 15, 2018
  • Huge uproar erupts over major incident at Utah park May 13, 2018
  • Incredible moon discovery stuns scientists May 12, 2018
  • Authorities shocked by discovery about common painkiller May 6, 2018
  • Outrageous crocodile experiment stuns scientists May 5, 2018
  • Great Barrier Reef is too quiet, scientists say May 1, 2018
  • Massive Hiroshima bomb discovery shocks scientists May 1, 2018
  • Earth will be slammed by massive asteroid April 29, 2018
  • Teens are doing something incredibly alarming in schools April 29, 2018
  • Huge discovery in Tasmania stuns scientists April 28, 2018
  • Shocking discovery in New Jersey stuns authorities April 22, 2018
  • Huge volcanic explosion could wipe out the United States April 21, 2018
  • Huge controversy erupts over world’s hottest pepper April 15, 2018
  • SpaceX is about to do something astonishing April 15, 2018

Copyright © 2022 Jones Kilmartin Group, LLC · Metro Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress