Ashley Madison user hack includes defence email addresses

DEFENCE personnel featured prominently in the names of Ashley Madison users made public in the recent hack, prompting a stern warning from the Defence Force chief.

CHIEF of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin has warned the alleged hack of personal information from the Ashley Madison infidelity website, including that of defence personnel, is unlikely to be an isolated event.

The release of the massive cache of data on Wednesday, by a group calling itself Impact Team, has raised serious questions around security with experts warning it could expose government employees as well as private individuals to blackmail and other criminal activity.

The files, seen by AAP, are purported to include the email accounts of more than 800 Australian government employees, both federal and state.

Online security reminder to personnel ... Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin.

Accounts linked to employees from the federal departments of health, education and environment, from the ABC, and from the NSW Attorney-General’s Department were included, as were many from defence and foreign affairs.

The data included credit card details, email accounts and home addresses.

In a statement issued in response to the release of the data, Air Chief Marshal Binskin said there was no evidence Australian-based systems or networks had been compromised.

“The unauthorised material published this month appears to have been enabled by individuals associating Defence email addresses with private online activity, and providing personally identifiable information,” he said is a joint statement with Defence Secretary Dennis Richardson.

Picture: AAP Graphic

“There is no evidence to suggest the leak is a result of any compromise of Australian-based systems or networks.”

However, the statement also cautioned that “these are unlikely to be isolated cases and the release of similar information may occur in the future”.

Defence personnel have been advised to take a number of steps to reduce the risk of their personal information being exposed, including being told to use a secure computer and a secure network.

“Be careful posting personally identifiable information that could compromise your or others’ security,” the advice said.

Picture: AAP Graphic/Supplied

“There is no change to the current threat level to Defence personnel and you should remain alert to your personal and online security.”

The dump of data on Wednesday cames after hacking group The Impact Team threatened in July to release information on users of Ashley Madison unless its publisher took the site down.

Ashley Madison is owned by Canadian-based company Avid Life Media.

There were about 812 user profiles using Australian government email addresses in the cache.

There are 234 unique gov.au domains.

The bulk are from Defence, and the NSW and Victorian education departments.

Of the more than one million Ashley Madison accounts linked to Australians, about 700,000 have verified their email contact, while the overwhelming majority — 86 per cent — are linked to men.