Ashley Madison Users Increase in Number Despite Hacking Scandal

By Charmaine Montes, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, December 31, 2015

Despite the notorious hacking scandal it went through, cheating website Ashley Madison is not shutting down for affairs. According to a report by The Hill, the number of users of the website have increased massively. People have predicted a downfall for the company but it seems like it's going the opposite way.

As noted in CNN Money, the counter on the website's homepage has already tallied more than 43 million "anonymous members". At the time the website was hacked, it had 39 million members. Some people are wondering what the reason could be for the growth but Avid Life Media, the creator of the affair-oriented website, chose not to comment on the matter.

A spokesman from the company said that the website had no update to provide since its last statement on Aug. 31, wherein they said that reports of its forthcoming demise were "greatly exaggerated." They also said that people still continue to use the site even though 32 million of its members' identities were exposed in the colossal data breach.

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The leak from hackers have created so much chaos among its members, including those accounts that are tied to the White House, top federal agencies and military branches. Celebrities and TV personalities were also exposed including "19 Kids and Counting" star Josh Duggar.

According to CNBC, the Impact Team, the hackers responsible for the hack, said that the reason why they conducted the breach was because of the claim that Ashley Madison deceived its users when it said it would eradicate personal details from its sites for a $19 fee.

"Full Delete (paid delete) netted [Ashley Madison] $1.7M in revenue in 2014. It's also a complete lie," the hacking group said in a statement, according to Krebs on Security, the site that first reported the hack.

However, Ashley Madison brushed aside the allegations and said that the paid-delete offer really removed all data to a member's profile and communications activity.