Ashley Madison mounts stiff defence

ashley madison launches stiff defenceBosses at Avid Life Media have come out fighting following the hack of the Ashley Madison illicit dating site, claiming “hundreds of thousands” of new members have joined the service despite the loss of 36 million customer records and the resignation of the firm’s chief executive.
The company, which is still reeling from the data breach of the summer, has also blamed the media for whipping up the storm. In a statement released last night, it said: “Journalists have turned the focus of the criminal act against Ashley Madison inside out, attacking us instead of the hackers.”
It also pooh-poohed claims that there were virtually no women on the site, adding: “Last week alone, women sent more than 2.8 million messages within our platform.”
A recent article by tech website Gizmodo suggested that only around 12,000 of the site’s 36 million members were real women, the rest being so-called “fembots” – computer programmes that send male users millions of fake messages.
But Ashley Madison said the analysis was based on “incorrect assumptions” and Gizmodo now acknowledges it “misunderstood” the data, although still maintains “the company was clearly on a desperate quest to design legions of fake women to interact with the men on the site”.
Whether this defence, and the departure of CEO Noel Biderman, will be enough to put its planned float on the London stock exchange – where it was hoping to raise up to $200m (£134m) – is another matter.
Avid added: “The ratio of male members who paid to communicate with women on our service versus the number of female members who actively used their account (female members are not required to pay to communicate with men on Ashley Madison) was 1.2 to 1.
“These numbers are the main reason that Ashley Madison is the number one service for people seeking discreet relationships.”

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2 Comments on "Ashley Madison mounts stiff defence"

  1. Ashley Madison mounts stiff defence: ‘we’re still growing’ http://t.co/FoDZhlZasU #databreach #digitalmarketing #data http://t.co/B6pKZ0Jw6b

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