Is the latest Ashley Madison leaked data dump real
The first set of data released on Tuesday came with a note from the hackers that described the leak as the "first," which suggests they always intended to release more.
However, the original files contained payment details, names and email addresses of all paying Ashley Madison users since 2008.
The Impact Team have not been as intent on laying a claim to this latest leak either. Although within the data, a file stating: "Hey Noel, you can admit it's real now" --The Impact Team" can be found.
Noel Biderman is the name of Ashley Madison's CEO.
Previously, a user titled The Impact Team uploaded the torrent to file sharing site The Pirate Bay, however this latest leak was uploaded yesterday evening under a different name, user "Liberator 2007", an account which previously uploaded free boot and recovery software.
20GB of data was published online, including a 13.74GB compressed file titled "noel.biderman.mail.7z", stirring speculation that this could contain all of his email communications.
However, those keen to extract the files and put them in a searchable format have encountered issues. The Biderman email file is corrupt, rendering it impenetrable.
Per Thorsheim, chief executive of cybersecurity firm God Praksis told the BBC, "It's in a zipped format, and when I try to decompress the contents a message comes up saying it won't work"..."I can't yet say why."
The larger file size could be a duplication or un-archived version of the dump, Pirate Bay users speculated. Warning signs including little official update from Impact Team on the deep web and the fact that the original files appeared to include information on the 36 million users (a figure confirmed by Avid Life Media).
However, as the picture above shows, files have been zipped in a .TGZ format (compressed archive files) which suggests they could be legitimate due to their size.
Opportunistic malware spreaders have jumped on the Ashley Madison bandwagon, uploading files titled "full Ashley Madison dump" and titles to similar effect, on torrenting sites, preying on those hoping to download through the leaked data.
One user, Brave Wanderer warned: "I wouldn't touch the other one until further announcement from Impact Team."
Techworld is currently downloading the files. More to follow.