SC agency domains among leaked affair website accounts

A leaked list of domain names allegedly used by visitors to the affair website Ashley Madison includes eight accounts tied to South Carolina local or state agencies, according to a list published by a security blog.

The records are part of millions of personal records compromised as the result of a hack of the site made public in July.

According to Wired.com, the leaked files appear to include account details and log-ins for some 32 million users of Ashley Madison, which advertises its site as “the most famous name in infidelity and married dating.”

This week, the records began surfacing, including 15,000 accounts that used military or government domains, according to a blog by Salted Hash-Top Security News and others.

Salted Hash published the list, along with disclaimers, since some of the names are obviously fake. Avid Life Media, the owners of Ashley Madison, did not require the data for users be valid unless it was a paid account, according to the blog.

Among the accounts on the the list were three tied to South Carolina agencies and five tied to local agencies.

The domains in the list included sc.gov, dhec.sc.gov, ed.sc.gov, charleston-sc.gov, greenwoodsc.gov, jaspercountysc.gov, and blumenau.sc.gov.

The hacked files, according to Wired.com, include seven years of credit card and other payment records, though no credit card numbers.

The leaked data includes names, addresses and phone numbers, but Wired.com noted it is unclear if members provided legitimate information. The data also included specifics on what users were searching for in a partner.

The hackers, calling themselves The Impact Team, demanded that Avid Life Media take down Ashley Madison and EstablishedMen.com or it would release customers’ records. The websites were not taken down and the hackers released data this week.

The hackers alleged that Ashley Madison collected a fee from customers to delete user data but retained the data anyway. They also alleged that the vast majority of users of the site are male and that the site uses fake female profiles.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 2:00 PM.