It hasn’t been a good day for Ashley Madison.
The extramarital dating site was subject to a massive data breach, with hackers accessing the personal information of over 37m users, along with sensitive company information.
After proving the hack by posting a selection of the data online, the hacker team said it would continue to publish more user information every day unless Avid Life Media shut down both Ashley Madison and Established Men.
And in the aftermath of the breach, a rather embarrassing email has been circulated online, in which Ashley Madison describes itself as being the “last truly secure space” on the internet.
The email, which was dug out by tech blogger Robert Scoble, was sent to journalists and bloggers by Ashley Madison’s PR team after the celebrity iCloud hacking scandal last year.
Touting its security system as “the core of AshleyMadison’s offering”, it says the dating site “takes every measure possible to ensure the safety of their members’ information.”
The email – subject line “Online Dating Site AshleyMadison Illuminates Deeper Need for Data Security” – then goes on to say Ashley Madison has “become the last truly secure space on the Internet.”
It’s certainly rather ironic now Ashley Madison is in the grips of one of the industry’s biggest security breaches – with hackers specifically targeting the site with a prolonged and zealous campaign to try and bring the site down.
As Scoble says in the comments below his Facebook post: “Even if you hire top notch IT security people and do security right, don’t brag about your security. No need to make yourself a larger target than you will be already if you become successful.”
Read more about the breach here.