Lawsuits made against Ashley Madison by its betrayed members across the United States and Canada could cost the adultery site more than $1 billion.
A number of class-action lawsuits have been filed against the adultery site, after it failed to protect the personal details of its 32m users, which were stolen by a team of hackers and later released onto the dark web.
Two court orders have been made this week in Texas and California, requiring Ashley Madison’s parent company, Avid Life Media (ALM) to answer the suits recently filed against them.
The latest lawsuits to be filed against the infidelity site join a number of outstanding claims against the site, including one made last month in Missouri, which was filed just after the initial security breach took place.
Each of these attorneys are reporting to have submitted claims for more than $5 million.
Last week, two Canadian law firms joined forces to file a class-action lawsuit against Toronto-based Avid Life Media, looking to secure $750 million or more in damages.
In a joint statement, Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP said: “Numerous former users of AshleyMadison.com have approached the law firms to inquire about their privacy rights under Canadian law.
“They are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users’ information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed.”
ALM now has until 14th September to respond to the allegation that it failed to protect the personal information of its account holders.
Earlier a week, a string of emails leaked as part of the 30 GB hack suggested that executives at Ashley Madison may have hacked into a competitor site in late 2012.
The messages, sent in November 2012 showed a discussion between the site’s Chief Executive, Noel Biderman and ex-CTO Raja Bhatia, in which Bhatia told the CEO he had discovered a hole in the security of the new dating section of American online sex and relationships magazine Nerve.com.
Following the discovery, Ashley Madison stated that the emails has been “taken out of context” and misinterpreted by those who found it.
A representative from Ashley Madison’s parent company, Avid Life Media told Vice: “Nerve was exploring strategic partnerships in May of 2012 and reached out to Noel to determine Avid Life Media’s interest in the property.At the time Noel did not act on that opportunity.”
“In September PTC Advisors, representing Nerve, contacted Noel and provided a more detailed brief on the opportunity. This communique was followed by a number of conversations. Subsequently Noel contacted Raja Bhatia and asked for his assistance in conducting technical due diligence on the opportunity. This activity, while clumsily conducted, uncovered certain technology shortcomings which Noel attempted to understand and confirm.
“At no point was there an effort made to hack, steal or use Nerve.com’s proprietary data.”
For more information about the hack, go here.