The world played a cosmic joke on organised adulterers in July last year when the Ashley Madison website was hacked.
The site, which was marketed as a place for married people to find others looking for an affair, was hit with a major data leak.
Suddenly, over 30 million members who had signed up for an out-of-wedlock experience had their details spewed across the internet for scornful partners to find.
Repercussions of the leak were serious – broken homes, suicides – and further evidence suggested that Ashley Madison was part of something bigger and more sinister than just a dating site for cheats.
Channel 4’s new documentary Sex, Lies, and Cyber Attacks takes a look at the leak and the company the attack was aimed at.
As well as charting the rise of Ashley Madison, and how it marketed itself to become a mainstream site, the one-off film looks at the man at the top: Noel Biderman.
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“The peculiar genius, not just of {Ashley Madison’s] marketing efforts but I think of the leadership, seems to be able to take anything, even negative news, and turn it into a promotional opportunity,” explains Gina Smith, Editor-in-Chief of ANewDomain Media, of the site’s success.
But after the Impact Team hackers took control on July 19, 2015 it marked the end for the controversial network – if not the end for Biderman and his Avid Life Media corporation.
As the contributors of this documentary explain, the successful attack wasn’t the first time the site’s security had been threatened – so was Biderman more interested in pulling a profit than protecting the data of his members?
Channel 4, 10pm
