The chief executive of Canadian-based infidelity website Ashley Madison has thrown in the towel after hackers leaked sensitive membership data online. Executives, however, said the portal would continue operating.
Adulterers’ dating site Ashley Madison announced Friday its CEO Noel Biderman stepped down following a widening data leak scandal.
Parent company Avid Life Media, which operates the portal, said the company and Biderman were “in mutual agreement” about the split.
Ashley Madison and its parent firm had been sued in California earlier this week by a man claiming that the website operators had failed to adequately protect clients’ personal and financial information from theft.
Dubious business model
The lawsuit followed a breach of data by hackers, who downloaded highly sensitive membership data and dumped the information online.
They said up to 37 million users could be affected by the data leak as they’d unsuccessfully demanded that Ashley Madison be closed down immediately.
Ashley Madison officials said Friday the site would remain operational despite the data leak and the executive reshuffle.
Meanwhile, news site Gizmo claimed its analysis of the Ashley Madison had shown little, if any, activity from the purported 5.5 million female members, suggesting the vast majority of profiles of women there were fakes and created by bots.
hg/sri (Reuters, dpa, AP)
