Ashley Madison
Disclosed Jul 19, 201511 years ago36,000,000 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 birth, Emails, Names, Passwords, Payment cards, Phone numbers, Addresses, Credentials and tokens, Other |
| 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
| Source | |
|---|---|
| Have I Been Pwned: Ashley Madisonhaveibeenpwned.com · Aggregator | Aggregator |
| Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hackedkrebsonsecurity.com · News | News |
| Operators of AshleyMadison.com Settle FTC, State Charges Resulting From 2015 Data Breach that Exposed 36 Million Users' Profile Informationftc.gov · Regulator | Regulator |
| NY AG: USD 17.5 Million settlement with owner of AshleyMadison.comag.ny.gov · Regulator | Regulator |
| Ashley Madison data breach (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org · News | News |
Notices filed
| Where | Filed | People |
|---|---|---|
| Researchtotal | Jul 19, 2015 | 36,000,000 |
| Researchtotal | Jul 19, 2015 | 36,000,000 |
| Have I Been Pwnedaccounts in the data | Aug 18, 2015 | 30,811,934 |
History of this record
- 2026-09-25 · source_type: press to regulator · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · source_url: 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-joint · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · fine_usd: 1600000 to 1657000 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · lawsuit: $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) · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · attack: extortion to hacking · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · summary: 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, · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · title: Impact Team hackers breach and later dump Ashley Madison user data to 2015 hack exposed 36M users' profiles; FTC and states settlement · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · source_type: aggregator to press · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · source_url: https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/AshleyMadison to https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/ · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · status: disclosed to settled · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · verified_by: empty to research · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · verified: 0 to 1 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · fine_usd: empty to 1600000 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · lawsuit: empty to $1.6M total paid to settle FTC and state charges (2016) · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · country: empty to CA · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · attack: unknown to extortion · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · data_types: ["dob","emails","names","passwords","payment-card","phone","addresses","credentials"] to ["dob","emails","names","passwords","payment-card","phone","addresses","credentials","other"] · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · records_basis: hibp to organization · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · records: 30811934 to 36000000 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · disclosed: 2015-08-18 to 2015-07-19 · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · summary: 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 wa · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · title: empty to Impact Team hackers breach and later dump Ashley Madison user data · seed source
- 2026-09-25 · added · backfill source
First seen 2026-09-25 (Have I Been Pwned), confirmed by Research. Record counts are as reported. Not legal advice.