Emails sent by the founder of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com appear to have been exposed in a second, larger release of data stolen from its parent company, Vice Media’s online technology site Motherboard reported on Thursday.
The data dump by a group of hackers who have attacked the site appeared to include email messages linked to Noel Biderman, the site’s founder and chief executive officer of its parent company Avid Life Media.
In a message, the hackers, who call themselves the Impact Team said:
Hey Noel, you can admit it’s real now
The release comes as the U.S Defense Department said it was investigating the alleged use of military email accounts on the site.
David Kennedy, founder and security consultant at TrustedSec, said that the fresh release appears to be authentic.
“Everything appears to be legit,” he said in an email. “We have portions downloaded and its confirmed legitimate thus far.”
The Motherboard report said the release bore the hallmarks of Tuesday’s release by hackers who call themselves the Impact Team. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the data.
The additional release will likely ratchet up the pressure on the company, which has been quiet about exactly how much and what sort of data was stolen in a breach in July.
