Check If Your Data Has Been Leaked by the Ashley Madison Hack
If you are worried about a recent Ashley Madison hack leaking your data or someone you know, the Trustify website can let you know.
The hacking of the business help site is believed to have affected some 37 million accounts, which means that many people are wondering if their data has been leaked or if their significant other’s name is on the list. Trustify’s private investigation service makes verification easy with a page dedicated to scanning released files to any email address. Just enter your email address and click “Check Now” to see if this email was part of a data dump. Depending on the type of account associated with the address, it can contain anything from sexual preference to the last four digits of your credit card number (if it’s a paid account).
Trustify’s privacy policy says they won’t share your information without consent, but if you’re skeptical about disclosing your email address, you can try searching Ashley Madison’s data yourself, but it’s hard to find and there is a lot of fake out there. Another service, Have I Been Pwned , will also let you look for leaked email addresses, but they will only let you know if you’ve verified your email address and signed up for Have I Been Pwned email notifications (a precaution used to make sure that people are not looking for someone else’s email address).
It should be noted that finding someone’s email address or name on the list does not necessarily mean that that person was a real user. As computer security blogger Graham Cluley explains , Ashley Madison did not verify email addresses for new accounts:
… I could create an account with Ashley Madison with the address barack.obama@whitehouse.gov, but that would not mean that Obama was a user of the site … It would be wise for journalists and commentators to remember that the credentials stored by Ashley Madison should be viewed as suspicious due to their clumsy practice, even before you start wondering if any database leaks are faked.
Also, if you plan on looking for emails from your friends or loved ones, really consider whether you want to find out or not.
Update: According to some Reddit users , Trustify sends emails to people whose email address was found using this tool. A Reddit user claiming to be a Trustify employee explains that the email is only intended as a warning to the person who has been compromised so they can protect themselves, but it does contain advertisements for the services they themselves provide. Keep this in mind if you plan on looking for yourself or others.
Check to see if you have exposed Ashley Madison | Trust through wired