Ashley Madison

Disclosed Jul 19, 201536,000,000 affectedSettled

2015 hack exposed 36M users' profiles; FTC and states settlement

The Impact Team announced in July 2015 that it had stolen Ashley Madison user data and later leaked it, exposing about 36 million users' account and profile information. The operators settled FTC and state charges with a USD 17.5M judgment, of which USD 1.66M was paid due to inability to pay.

What is known

People affected	36,000,000 (as reported by the organization)
Disclosed	Jul 19, 2015
Happened	Jul 19, 2015
Attack	Hacking
Data exposed	Dates of birthEmailsNamesPasswordsPayment cardsPhone numbersAddressesCredentials and tokensOther
Sector	Tech · CA
Status	Settled
Lawsuit or fine	USD 17.5M FTC/13 states settlement, USD 1.66M paid (Dec 2016); USD 11.2M class action settlement (2017) (about $1.7M)
Check your email	Have I Been Pwned

Sources

Aggregatorhaveibeenpwned.com

Have I Been Pwned: Ashley Madison

Newskrebsonsecurity.com

Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked

Regulatorftc.gov

Operators of AshleyMadison.com Settle FTC, State Charges Resulting From 2015 Data Breach that Exposed 36 Million Users' Profile Information

Regulatorag.ny.gov

NY AG: USD 17.5 Million settlement with owner of AshleyMadison.com

Newsen.wikipedia.org

Ashley Madison data breach (Wikipedia)

Notices filed

TotalJul 19, 2015

Research36,000,000 people

TotalJul 19, 2015

Research36,000,000 people

Accounts in the dataAug 18, 2015

Have I Been Pwned30,811,934 people

History of this record

source_type2026-09-25

press to regulatorby seedSource

source_url2026-09-25

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/ to https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2016/ag-schneiderman-announces-175-million-settlement-owner-ashleymadisoncom-jointby seedSource

fine_usd2026-09-25

1600000 to 1657000by seedSource

lawsuit2026-09-25

$1.6M total paid to settle FTC and state charges (2016) to USD 17.5M FTC/13 states settlement, USD 1.66M paid (Dec 2016); USD 11.2M class action settlement (2017)by seedSource

attack2026-09-25

extortion to hackingby seedSource

summary2026-09-25

Hackers calling themselves The Impact Team breached Avid Life Media and threatened to publish Ashley Madison user data unless the site closed, then dumped it a month later. The FTC said account and profile information of 36 million users wa to The Impact Team announced in July 2015 that it had stolen Ashley Madison user data and later leaked it, exposing about 36 million users' account and profile information. The operators settled FTC and state charges with a USD 17.5M judgment,by seedSource

title2026-09-25

Impact Team hackers breach and later dump Ashley Madison user data to 2015 hack exposed 36M users' profiles; FTC and states settlementby seedSource

source_type2026-09-25

aggregator to pressby seedSource

source_url2026-09-25

https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/AshleyMadison to https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/by seedSource

status2026-09-25

disclosed to settledby seedSource

verified_by2026-09-25

empty to researchby seedSource

verified2026-09-25

0 to 1by seedSource

fine_usd2026-09-25

empty to 1600000by seedSource

lawsuit2026-09-25

empty to $1.6M total paid to settle FTC and state charges (2016)by seedSource

country2026-09-25

empty to CAby seedSource

attack2026-09-25

unknown to extortionby seedSource

data_types2026-09-25

["dob","emails","names","passwords","payment-card","phone","addresses","credentials"] to ["dob","emails","names","passwords","payment-card","phone","addresses","credentials","other"]by seedSource

records_basis2026-09-25

hibp to organizationby seedSource

records2026-09-25

30811934 to 36000000by seedSource

disclosed2026-09-25

2015-08-18 to 2015-07-19by seedSource

summary2026-09-25

In July 2015, the infidelity website Ashley Madison suffered a serious data breach . The attackers threatened Ashley Madison with the full disclosure of the breach unless the service was shut down. One month later, the database was dumped i to Hackers calling themselves The Impact Team breached Avid Life Media and threatened to publish Ashley Madison user data unless the site closed, then dumped it a month later. The FTC said account and profile information of 36 million users waby seedSource

title2026-09-25

empty to Impact Team hackers breach and later dump Ashley Madison user databy seedSource

Added2026-09-25

First recordedby backfillSource

First seen 2026-09-25 (Have I Been Pwned), confirmed by Research. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.

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