The Queensland Government is investigating how at least 44 public service e-mail addresses appeared in data that hackers claim was stolen from the cheating Web site Ashley Madison.
In July, digital intruders claimed to have stolen user data for AshleyMadison.com and threatened to release the data unless Avid Life, the owner of the site, then talking of a $200 million public stock offering, didn’t shut down the service.
The hacker group, Impact Team, made good on the threat by releasing the data on Wednesday to the Dark Web, which operates separately to the public Internet and is only accessible through a special browser.
The sexual fantasies and personal information of millions of users of the cheating Web site, including Australian members, were released in a massive cache of data.
In Australia, at least 800 government e-mail accounts believed to be linked to users of the dating service appear in a cache of the files seen by Aussie news service AAP.
This includes postal addresses and some phone numbers from around Australia, including a detective, a regional councillor and a government official in Queensland.
