Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal documentary had some shocking reveals about the dating site that catered to married people who were looking to have affairs. Ashley Madison rose to fame in the early 2000s with its famous tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair.” The company promised its subscribers complete discretion, so it was no surprise that by 2015 Ashley Madison had over 35 million subscribers.
However, not everyone was happy with the controversial product the site was selling. On July 13, 2015, Ashley Madison was hacked by an anonymous group called The Impact Team who demanded that the dating site should be shut down immediately. When the company failed to comply with the hacker’s wishes, millions of user information was released. One of many documentaries on Netflix, it chronicles the devastating effects that the data breach had on Ashley Madison users and how the company handled the hack.
Despite the famous Ashley Madison tagline: “Life is short. Have an affair,” being everywhere, the site had a difficult time getting its ads on mainstream television. Most TV networks were not willing to let Ashley Madison advertise their site because of the racy ads, degradation of women, and the controversial message that Ashley Madison was based on. However, the site still managed to grow exponentially, and it was all thanks to its CEO, Noel Biderman.
When Noel Bderman became the CEO of Ashley Madison, he was obsessed with growing the site. Since TV networks rejected the Ashley Madison ads, Noel had to come up with a new strategy for making the site popular. Noel and his wife went on talk shows to promote Ashley Madison, stating how infidelity could save a marriage. Their message caused outrage among conservative Christians, yet Ashley Madison ended up having over 35 million subscribers in 2015.
For Ashley Madison to work, it needed both men and women to join the dating site. However, the number of men on Ashley Madison outmatched the number of women, so the company had to find a way to attract women to the site because, without them, the concept wouldn’t work. Ashley Madison heavily advertised to women, who, unlike men, could join the site without paying for a subscription.
Despite Noel Biderman claiming that numerous women also signed up for the site, the Ashley Madison documentary revealed that the site was not as progressive as it seemed. In fact, it hosted several fake profiles of women. In addition to the fake profiles, it used bots to inflate its numbers. These bots were used to lure in men so that the company could make more money from the subscriptions.
The whole premise of Ashley Madison was that its members could have an affair without worrying about their personal information leaking. Since they were promised total anonymity, most members freely gave out their real names, credit card information, and sexual desires. Ashley Madison promised its users that it would protect and wipe out their data for a price. However, the company did not delete any data despite its customers paying for the protection Ashley Madison had promised.
According to former Ashley Madison employees, security was an early concern at the company. Ashley Madison was growing rapidly, but they had no idea if the security measures they had put in place could prevent the site from being hacked. The top executives at Ashley Madison were more concerned about growing the company than if the sensitive information the members put on the site was protected. With that in mind, Ashley Madison being hacked felt inevitable.
On July 13, 2015, Ashley Madison’s worst nightmare came true: the site had been hacked. The data breach was by The Impact Team, and they demanded that the company should shut down immediately and permanently, or they would expose their customer’s information. The executives at Ashley Madison decided to keep the hack a secret from law enforcement, the press, and the Ashley Madison members because such news would have meant the destruction of many lives. At the time of the hack, Noel Biderman was planning on making the company public, so it was imperative that the data breach had to be kept a secret.
Ashley Madison was given 30 days to give in to The Impact Team’s demands, so they tried to take matters into their own hands. The company hired Swedish hackers to find out who was behind the data breach, but they were unsuccessful because their only lead turned out to not be involved in the hack. Seven days into the hack, the media found out about the data breach and the news caused a panic because more than 35 million of its users were about to have their private information made public.
Ashley Madison did not want to give in to The Impact Teams’ demands, so they tried all they could to find out who was behind the hack. However, the 30 days they were given were up, and the Impact Team released all the data on the dark web, just as they had promised. As the documentary explains, the Ashley Madison hack was one of the biggest data breaches ever seen, and it had devastating consequences for a lot of people.
Several prominent people in society, including celebrities, state attorneys, and school principals, found their lives turned upside down when their names were found on the list of Ashley Madison members. Some people denied ever using the site, while some public officials had no choice but to apologize for their involvement with such a controversial company. The Ashley Madison data breach caused a huge media frenzy and there was even a radio show where people would call in to find out if their partners were members of Ashley Madison.
The public was fascinated by the Ashley Madison data breach and used it as a way to shame the site’s members. However, for some people whose names were found on the list, the data leak was catastrophic. Some members of Ashley Madison suffered from anxiety and depression because of public shaming. The saddest consequence of the Ashley Madison data breach is undoubtedly the death of one of its members.
One of the interviewees in The Ashley Madison documentary, Christi Gibson, revealed how the data breach led her husband, John, into taking his own life. John was a minister who taught at a New Orleans Baptist theological seminary but was fired when his bosses found out that he had been using Ashley Madison. The fact that everyone knew about a secret he planned to take to the grave filled John with despair and shame, which ultimately led to his death.
Sam and Nia Rader are two famous Christian YouTube vloggers whose lives were destroyed by the Ashley Madison data breach. The couple rose to fame after they posted a video lip-syncing to Frozen’s Love Is An Open Door. When The Impact Team released the first data damp which contained Ashley Madison’s client list and emails, Sam had no choice but to come clean about being a member of the site. He denied ever having an affair and apologized for being involved with Ashley Madison.
When The Impact Team released more information, which included all of Ashley Madison’s emails and secret documents, it became clear that Sam had a lot to hide. It turned out Sam had lied to Nia and millions of his YouTube subscribers. He had been visiting strip clubs, and had several affairs, some of which were with the couple’s acquaintances. Despite all the secrets that Sam had kept from his wife, the couple were able to work through their issues and are still together.
When Noel Biderman was promoting Ashley Madison on talk shows, he claimed that he didn’t cheat on his wife, and that his marriage was monogamous. However, that was a lie. After The Impact Team released the CEO’s work and personal emails, it turned out he also had secrets he would have rather kept hidden. Noel had been cheating on his wife with multiple women for several years. The Netflix documentary also revealed that Noel used escort services to have affairs with women who were as young as 18 years old.
After Ashley Madison was hacked, some people in the company suspected that Noel was behind the data breach as a publicity stunt. However, when his emails were exposed, it became clear that Noel had nothing to do with the Ashley Madison hack. The Impact Team seemed to have a personal vendetta against Noel and they were determined to make him suffer for the role he had played in making Ashley Madison popular.
When Ashley Madison was hacked, the company had brought in Swedish cybersecurity specialists to assist with the investigation. The specialist had several suspects, including Noel Biderman, but they still couldn’t figure out who was behind the hack. No one had heard of The Impact Team, so finding them proved to be a difficult task. Ashley Madison even offered a $500, 000 reward, but no one took credit for the data breach. After the second data leak that released Ashley Madison’s private company information, the executives decided it was time to hand over the investigation to the police.
When the police took over the Ashley Madison investigation, they also failed to find who was behind the hack. The closest The Impact Team came to being caught was when a journalist contacted them on the dark web, but they refused to reveal their identity. To this day, no one knows who was behind the Ashley Madison data breach or who The Impact Team is.