back to article Ashley Madison hack – Tory MP Green denies registering account

Ex-Tory bigwig Damian Green has got caught up in the hack of AshleyMadison.com after it emerged a private email address seemingly linked to him was found on the site for love rats. The former Minister for Police and Criminal Justice has denied ever using the website, and said he could not remember if the aol.com address used …

  1. Salts

    And we expected ...

    him to admit it :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And we expected ...

      Well we know he's a liar, he's pretending to be three years younger than he is

    2. Mr.Mischief

      Re: And we expected ...

      The "wasn't me" defense..

      www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_f6qFBQD9U

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unsheath your sword of truth

    Taking the time to research his mothers maiden name shows impressive attention to detail from the person(s) unknown trying to frame him by signing him up to an infidelity-based dating site then hoping their database gets leaked in order to embarass him. Which is obviously what has happened.

    1. Spotthelemon

      Re: Unsheath your sword of truth

      when they create fake accounts to embarrass, its generally other users of the site & then the Press who they hope will reveal it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Unsheath your sword of truth

      Your Mothers maiden name is very easy to find out.

      IMHO you should never use her real one. That way you can detect fake accounts.

      The same goes for your First School.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Unsheath your sword of truth

        And your year of birth even easier - but why make him look younger if you're trying to embarrass someone?

  3. Spotthelemon

    hackers, usually make money out of purveying porn on their websites, use fake accounts a lot and refuse to reveal who they really are on-line but get all sanctimonious & holier than thou over the silly Ashley Madison site & the fools who use it

    pot kettles & black are words that spring to mind

    1. Spotthelemon

      also don't hackers sites usually contain adverts for fake dating agencies, the 'meet sexy girls from Russia' type or 'hot girls from your area'. From what I can make out Ashley Madison was marginally more upmarket. A cynic might conclude they're just trying to trash the opposition to the stuff they advertise

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mail adresses were not checked...

    ... but does the system send emails automatically for contact requests or other messages exchanges? Who would risk to send them to other people addresses, risking to expose their activities, especially to some who could easily trigger a full investigation, unless explicitly trying to embarrass the recipient?

    Or AM hoped to make some easy money from cancellations by people too afraid to make it public?

  5. James 100

    Two MP accounts

    The other MP account exposed so far was a very obvious fake, with most of the details being wrong, so it wouldn't be a shock if this turned out to be junk too. Someone said a certain Mr B Obama has a whopping seven accounts on there too!

    Meanwhile, I read somewhere else that a married convicted child molester had two AM accounts (active, paid up ones, not just unverified registrations like this one) on the go at once. I suppose if you can put up with the child molester bit, tolerating a bit of adultery as well isn't such a big deal, but still...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Two MP accounts

      Mr Bob Ama? I'm sure I used to be at school with him.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    denied ever using the website

    I thought he was doing a research?!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Already bored of the "it was hackers wot done it" knee-jerk reflex.

  8. h4rm0ny

    Excellent.

    I love our politicians being judged on the basis of their sex lives. It's such an important part of their jobs, you see. That's how we got rid of Clinton and kept Bush, for example.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Excellent.

      Clinton had served the full eight years allowed by the Constitution, so even if he had no scandal and was the most popular president in history we still would have got rid of him.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Excellent.

      Don't worry, it's still full of Clintons looking for the presidential seat, and Bushes are not scarce either.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        Re: Excellent.

        Bushes are not scarce either.

        They are on Ashley Madison, only 5% of users, it would seem.

        Oh, you mean...

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: Excellent.

          I wonder if Bill Clinton used AM to recrute his personal staff ?

        2. mark 177
          Coat

          Re: Excellent.

          And 95% of those bushes have been heavily pruned back.

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
            Coat

            Re: Excellent.

            Brazilians? We shoot them here. Oh, you meant Bazillions?

            Coat? Yeah, the one with the backpack. <ducks and walks, not runs, away>

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Excellent.

      Or you know, he was "got rid of" because he had served both terms he was permitted and couldn't run again.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wouldn't be surprised if half of the mugs who signed up for this were "just curious" and might have bottled out of it if any serious opportunity arose.

    Then I'd guess some of the men who signed up were attempting to "get even" with wives they (probably wrongly) suspect of cheating but couldn't face challenging them. The assumption being it's easier for a wife to find someone to cheat with without having to resort to looking online.

    Finally there's the conspiratorial view that the website was operated on behalf of persons who might use it to blackmail prominent people and generally corrupt society....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "just curious"

      According to bloggers who'd researched the site before this snafu a lot of people on the site where just looking for like minded people to chat to.

      I've not been near this one, but have frequented swapping sites and user generated content sites without any interest in joining in. Found lots of people to chat to over the years. Lets face it who talks about the intimate life whether it rocks or sucks (or doesn't) with friends. If you need someone to talk to you either pay an shrink/councillor or you find someone anonymously.

  10. VinceH
    Facepalm

    Optional

    "Ashley Madison does not require users to verify their email addressees"

    If that's so then I hope they don't bother sending anything to the addresses of people signing up - because signing up with someone else's address would be an obvious way to be an annoying bastard.

    And assuming they don't, if the address is neither verified nor used, why do they ask for it in the first place?

    1. Old Handle

      Re: Optional

      As I mentioned in a previous AM thread, someone recently signed up for a match.com account using my email address. As far as I could tell it was a legitimate mistake, but my attempts to unsubscribe using the link in the messages had little if any effect. So yeah, it was an easy way to be an annoying bastard.

      Though in this case I feel kind of bad for him. I finally had to access the account using password reset and close it down. Somewhere a middle aged divorced guy with two kids and the same first initial and last name as me is wondering why his dating site account doesn't work anymore.

      1. VinceH
        Facepalm

        Re: Optional

        Which therefore leads to the obvious question: Why the hell aren't these sites verifying addresses? It's not difficult to do, and not doing it in this day and age is demonstrating a level of twattery that goes way beyond just being twats and into the realms of being twats*10twat.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Of course he's lying, he's a politician.

    Let see, he created the account changing his year of birth and his correct mother's maiden name

    or

    Hackers knew that this information would be leaked and set the account up in advance so it could be found at a later date and discredit a "Former" Minister for the Police and current back bench M.P. inflicting no damage whatsoever on his party,

    I know which I believe.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ashley Madison account?

    Whatever.

    AOL email address? For shame!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Doesn't the other table have his address and credit card info?

    1. Old Handle

      Only if he paid. I imagine lots of people sign up but decide the site isn't worth spending money on.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No DNA evidence either on the poice database...

    Since he arranged for it to deleted under "exceptional" circumstances (read one rule for them and another for the plebs):

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6056725/Tory-MP-Damian-Green-has-DNA-profile-deleted-from-database.html

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not me

    I'm too boring

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reporting on private information

    On the assumption this database is effectively stolen intellectual property belonging to AM, isn't reporting on and revealing the contents of it on shaky legal ground? Surely it would be akin to someone thieving source code, putting it on a torrent, then people reporting on and revealing the contents?

    Genuine question.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "stolen intellectual property"

      "Stolen" means taken without the intention to return, and "intellectual property" means all sorts of very different things: trademarks, patents, ... I'm not sure what the expression "stolen intellectual property" is supposed to mean. Something like a hijacked domain name, perhaps? In this case I don't think AM's possible copyright or rights under the European Database Directive are something people need to worry about very much in comparison to the potential problems of handling "sensitive personal data".

  17. John Jc

    I was curious , so I had a look myself. I have never signed up to AM , but one of my "use for spam" addresses appears in the list of email addresses. I've not looked back through all the junk mail to see if it ever had anything in there from AM. This makes me doubtful that any of the "famous people" are actually real!

    Jc

  18. Captain Dallas

    It's funny just how many AM accounts will be the result of supposed 'hacking'.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      95% male

      5% female / click-bait

      What's worse, your name being found on there or finding out that the person you have been getting online jiggy with is most likely another bloke?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EXODUS 20:14 Forget the technical/scammer/spammer excuses. At least three people know about this whole thing, you, the other person and God. Simple! Ask for forgiveness to temptation and sin, correct yourself. God will take care of the rest as he deemed fit.

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