Ashley Madison: Hacker, is it still going and what happened to Sam and Nia after Netflix
Netflix viewers want to know who hacked Ashley Madison, what happened to Sam and Nia and if the website is still going.
Bombshell Netflix documentary Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal has brought to light a hacking group's data breach which exposed millions of cheating couples' illicit affairs.
Dating app Ashley Madison was put into the spotlight when hackers broke into the site in 2015 and exposed millions of users' confidential details.
Ashley Maddison had tried to attract extramarital cheaters with a slogan: "Life is short. Have an affair."
What is Ashley Madison?
Launched by Canadian businessman Darren Morgenstern in 2001, the website was inspired by a shocking revelation that 30 percent of people on dating sites were actually married.
Ashley Madison is still trading today and users can log in and start looing for an affair, with the app available on the iPhone App store and on Google Play.
As of 2024, Ashley Madison boasts a staggering membership of over 75 million across 53 countries..
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Who is the Ashley Madison hacker?
Nearly 10 years later, the culprits behind the Ashley Madison data breach are still at large. A hacker or group known as 'The Impact Team' took credit for the cyber onslaught.
Initially, cyber-security pundits posited that an international cabal of "hacktivists" might be the masterminds. Or perhaps it was a rogue element within Ashley Madison's parent company, Avid Life Media (ALM), given the hackers' intimate knowledge of internal affairs.
'The Impact Team' lambasted ALM for hoodwinking users with the promise of account deletion for a fee of around £15, claiming such erasure was a fallacy. Amidst the turmoil, ALM's security chief received an unexpected commendation from the hackers
What happened in the Ashley Madison hack?
Ashley Madison prides itself on top level security due to its discreet nature, but the 2015 cyber-attack uncovered critical weaknesses. An astonishing 37 million users had their private data laid bare across three 'data dumps' in August 2015.
User identities, email addresses, sensitive photographs, financial details, and lurid messages were thrust into the murky depths of the dark web by what was suspected to be a collective of cyber intruders.
Sam and Nia
Among those seen on the Netflix documentary are Youtuber Sam and his wife Nia. Sam Rader, 38, admitted to registering on the platform to chat to women, despite being married to his wife Nia, with whom he has kids.
While Sam acknowledged his involvement with the site, he maintained that he never engaged in a physical affair. Nonetheless, the furore led him to reveal a bombshell admission.
He divulged that he had been unfaithful to Nia, 35, throughout their marriage, even making inappropriate approaches towards some of her friends.
