According to police in Canada, two individuals associated with the leak of Ashley Madison customer details are said to have taken their own lives. According to BBC, the police in Toronto has given no further information about the deaths. However they say that the Canadian parent company of the cheating website, Avid Life Media, is offering a C$500,000 (£240,000) reward for information on the hackers. It was reported that details of more than 33 million users have been stolen by the hackers from the website that offers the opportunity to have an affair.
Acting staff superintendent Bryce Evans of the Toronto police said, addressing the hackers known as The Impact Team, "I want to make it very clear to you your actions are illegal and we will not be tolerating them. This is your wake-up call."
In the same source, Mr. Evans was reported to have explained that the hack has already resulted to a series "spin-offs of crimes and further victimization".
"Criminals have already engaged in online scams by claiming to provide access to the leaked websites," he said.
"The public needs to be aware that by clicking on these links you are exposing your computers to malware, spyware, adware and viruses."
Mr. Evans has also told the public, "To the hacking community who engage in discussions on the dark web and who no doubt have information that could assist this investigation, we're also appealing to you to do the right thing. You know the Impact Team has crossed the line. Do the right thing and reach out to us."
In another source, a security analyst has mentioned that suicides can be one of the consequences of the data dump. Security analyst Brian Krebs, who first reported the hack, said on Wednesday has said last week feared exactly that result. "There's a very real chance that people are going to overreact. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw people taking their lives because of this, and obviously piling on with ridicule and trying to out people is not going to help the situation."
