Hackers steal details of 37m users of adultery dating site Ashley Madison

Hackers claim to have stolen personal information, including credit card and contact details, of as many as 37 million users of the adulterers' dating website Ashley Madison.

The site, which has the slogan "Life is short. Have an affair", seems to have been hacked by a group calling itself "The Impact Team".

In a manifesto posted online, the group blasted Avid Life Media, the company which runs Ashley Madison, both for poor morals and poor online security. They also demanded that the company shut down Ashley Madison, as well as another site they run, a "millionaire dating site" called Established Men, or they would release users' information to the public.

ALM admitted the breach late last night, and apologised "for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers' information".

The hack was first revealed by noted cybersecurity blog Krebs on Security, which quoted the group as saying “too bad for those men, they’re cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion”.

They continued: “Too bad for ALM, you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver. We’ve got the complete set of profiles in our DB dumps, and we’ll release them soon if Ashley Madison stays online. And with over 37 million members, mostly from the US and Canada, a significant percentage of the population is about to have a very bad day, including many rich and powerful people.”

In a statement, the firm said: "We have always had the confidentiality of our customers' information foremost in our minds, and have had stringent security measures in place.

"At this time, we have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points. We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyberterrorism will be held responsible."