SOUTH AFRICA: Randfontein Most Unfaithful Town

The affairs of 200000 cheating South Africans could soon be out in the open if suspicious spouses are willing to download a 9gig file and navigate the Dark Web.

If they manage to access this information they will discover that their partners are signed up to the world's most well-known dating website for the unfaithful, Ashley Madison.

On Tuesday, a group of hackers calling themselves the Impact Team dumped 9.7gigabytes of data on the Dark Web, which is accessible only through the Tor browser. These files include the account details and log-ons of some 32million users of Ashley Madison worldwide. Names, street addresses, credit card details and even biographies that include sexual preferences are included.

In the UK, researchers sifting through the data found 124 users with government e-mail addresses.

Michelle Thomson, a newly elected married UK MP, yesterday had to defend the fact that her e-mail address was among the data leaked. She claimed someone had stolen her e-mail address.

Researchers have even found Vatican e-mail addresses in the data dump.

Sexual preferences listed on one user's account included "likes to give oral sex", "likes to receive oral sex", "enjoys light kinky fun, role-playing and erotic tickling".

South African researchers are also mining the data, which is likely to reveal South African cheaters soon.

A year ago Ashley Madison South Africa revealed that it had 205 000 local members. Previous analysis of its data, released by Ashley Madison, found that Randfontein was the most unfaithful town in South Africa, having registered the most users.

Ashley Madison South Africa could not be reached yesterday, but the parent body based in Canada issued a statement.

"We have now learned that the individual or individuals responsible for this attack claim to have released more of the stolen data.

"We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online and will continue to devote significant resources to this effort," it said.

But there is little the website can do to retrieve its database or prevent it being accessed.

Cyber investigator Jacques van Heerden said: "If the site happened to be in the US they could get law enforcement to approach the ISP and get it to take down the site. But this is on the Deep Web and Ashley Madison can not remove it from there."

A further concern is that the information stolen could be used in other cyber crimes.

"When information is not protected, it is part of an open market that can be exploited," said Danny Myburgh, a cyber and forensic investigator.

He added that on such a site some users could be using stolen credit cards and this could cause trouble for owners of the cards when the data is revealed.

Divorce lawyers warned of the impact of the data release.

Lawyer Roy Bregman said that even if an affair took place only online, cybersex could be grounds for divorce.

Bregman said South African law no longer required a wronged spouse to prove desertion or adultery.

"Rather, the test is whether the marriage has broken down irretrievably.

"If the affected spouse, who learns about the online affair, is so disappointed or incensed, the other spouse's action may ruin the marriage. His or her actions may cause an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage," he said.

But Dr Eve, author of the book Cyberfidelity, said divorce was not the inevitable result of people discovering infidelity, which might be committed only online.

"People often fight for a marriage or have the conversations they needed to have [before the affair]."

She said Ashley Madison was not the only place where infidelity or cyber infidelity took place. Many flirtatious or cybersex conversations started on Facebook.

Previously, the hackers issued a warning to the company instructing it to take Ashley Madison and Established Men offline permanently in all forms.

It threatened that a failure to do so would result in the release of all customer information.

This would include "profiles with all the customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and e-mails".

In yesterday's dump. an embedded note to Trevor Stokes, the chief technology officer of Avid Life Media, the company that owns Ashley Madison, read: "Well Trevor, welcome to your worst f**king nightmare."

Trail of havoc

In the last year alone hackers have wreaked havoc on a number of high-profile brands:

eBay (2014) asked 145million users to change their passwords after hackers stole customers' details.
Heartbleed (2014) was left vulnerable to data theft by vulnerability in encryption used to protect major websites.
Sony (2014): A cyber attack resulted in a huge data leak, including details of 47000 workers and famous actors.
US Central Command (2015): Hackers claiming links to Islamic State took control of CentCom's Twitter and YouTube accounts.

What is the dark web?

The dark web is described as the "underground of the internet" or the "internet black market".

The Silk Road, the most famous of the dark websites, was closed down in October 2013, when its founder Ross Ulbricht, 29, of San Francisco was arrested on charges of money-laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics and attempted murder. He has since been jailed for life.

At the click of a button, customers could order potentially deadly drugs from the comfort of their bedrooms.