Ashley Madison

It’s been almost half a decade since news of Ashley Madison’s hacking scandal was heard ‘round the world. Now, just as memories of the hack had started to fade, data from the breach is at the center of a new cyber extortion scam.

In summer 2015, all the dating industry could talk about was The Impact Team — the group of hackers that gained access to Ashley Madison’s database of more than 37 million members and threatened to release customer records unless the dating site for adulterers shut down. The hackers made good on their threat and Ashley Madison found itself facing a $760 million class action lawsuit. Though some predicted that it could be the end of the dating site, Ashley Madison held strong and celebrated reaching 60 million members last year.

Four years after a hacking scandal threatened to bring it down, Ashley Madison is celebrating a milestone. The notorious infidelity dating site has reached 60 million members worldwide since launching in 2002.

"Our unique community of like-minded people continues to grow across the globe," said Paul Keable, Chief Strategy Officer of Ashley Madison, in a prepared statement. "We offer discretion to those seeking infidelity, and clearly, with strong results underscoring the company's growth, what we offer is in demand."

Ashley Madison’s latest annual Report on Customer Statistics reveals that more than 14,500 new member accounts were added on average each day in 2018. For every active paid male account, 1.1 active female accounts were created. The site averages more than 440,000 new signups per month and facilitates more than 39.5 thousand affairs per day. In total, over 5.3 million new accounts were registered on Ashley Madison last year.

Hot on the heels of Match’s announcement that its new service, Ask Match, will make dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions, Ashley Madison is planning a coaching service of its own. The dating site for affair seekers recently revealed it has been testing a "cheating coaches" feature in Brazil and the United States since March of this year.

Hiring a coach to improve your romantic game is nothing new, but Ashley Madison may be the first to apply the idea to infidelity. The feature will allow users to search for an available coach through the mobile app, then purchase time with them via a credits system. Each credit costs around 50 cents, according to Business Insider. A continuous conversation with a coach will set you back eight credits.

Is your partner a doctor? A Libertarian? Obsessed with tattoos? If so, a series of surveys from married dating site Ashley Madison says they may be more likely to cheat.

As the world’s foremost experts in affairs, with more than 39 million users in 53 countries, the folks at Ashley Madison know a thing or two about infidelity. Several studies conducted by the company this year reveal the secrets of America’s cheaters, including who’s most likely to be unfaithful, what they’re attracted to when they do it, and which partners are most likely to forgive an adulterous indiscretion.

One survey determined the professions that are most likely to stray. The most common jobs for cheating women are in the medical field (nurses/doctors). “A combination of long hours of potential stress mixed with a natural reaction to stress just might be the reason these women in the medical profession seek out an affair,” reports Ashley Madison.

Life’s short, have an affair. But for the love of two-timing tricksters everywhere, don’t do it on Ashley Madison.

Following the catastrophic hack that hit the company in 2015, the dating site for extramarital action is in hot water again - this time for exposing a large portion of its cheating clientele’s private photos.

A team of security researchers has revealed that “poor technical and logical implementations” has left many images from Ashley Madison users vulnerable to exposure online. Due to these flaws, they wrote in a report, approximately 64% of the site’s private (and often explicit) pictures are accessible.

Cheating. Adultery. Stepping out. Having an affair. Two-timing. Infidelity. Extracurricular activities.

We have a number of words for it, and an equally plentiful number of excuses for doing it. A new survey from Ashley Madison, the infamous online dating service that caters to extramarital encounters and claims more than 56 million members worldwide, has uncovered the most common reasons people cheat on their partners.

Ashley Madison teamed up with YourTango to ask 1,300 male and female respondents about how and why they partake in their illicit affairs. You may think the answer is simple - one too many drinks, and suddenly otherwise-attached strangers are hooking up in a grungy bar bathroom - but in fact, the act is often more premeditated than that.