The owner of Ashley Madison is settling charges regarding the company’s weak online security.
The company in charge of the website is paying $1.6 million for the settlements that questioned the strength of the company’s web security. Additionally, the site allegedly misled users via fake female profiles that drew men in.
“Life is short. Have an affair,” is the slogan that many were attracted to when the website launched. The website was hacked on July of 2015, revealing the names and personal information of dozens of millions, angering many spouses who were outed for their infidelity as they expected their involvement in the site to remain hush hush.
More than 36 million customers were outed, including their addresses, credit card data, sexual preferences and more information for the entire world to see. Ruby Corp. is the name of the parent company, which had previously entered into a $17.5 million agreement to settle these charges.
However, the Federal Trade Comissions noted that the company was unable to pay these charges. The charges came from 13 states, including New York, Alaska, Tennessee, as well as the District of Columbia.
“The global settlement requires AshleyMadison.com to implement a range of more robust data security practices that will better protect its users’ personal information from criminal hackers,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.
She added that this is the largest data breach ever encountered by the agency.
