Military Not Immune to Ashley Madison Hack: Military Connection

By Debbie Gregory.

Hackers released compromising details on thousands of military personnel who were users of the adultery website AshleyMadison.com.

The registered email addresses, names, addresses and phone numbers and financial information submitted by users of the website that promotes marital affairs, were part of a recent data dump by hackers who stole the sensitive personal information.

There are 6,788 us.army.mil addresses, 1,665 navy.mil ones, and 809 usmc.mil. It is thought that many of these email addresses may well be fake, as the site does not verify them during sign up.

The Defense Department couldn’t immediately confirm whether the military domains were valid.

“We are aware of the reporting,” Army Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, a spokesman at the Pentagon, said on Wednesday in an email. “However, we do not keep service email addresses centrally located. Confirmation of the emails would have to be handled by the services.”

Many of the email addresses appear to be suspect, erroneous or outright fake. For example, false domains include “yahoo.mil,” “us.ary.mil” and even “fakemail.gov.” Other addresses appear to be old and likely no longer in use. For instance, 127 addresses are registered to “gimail.af.mil” — a service phased out by the Air Force in 2010.

Simply having an account with the site might not be enough for a military prosecution. It could, however, land some people in hot water with their employers.

Using a .mil email account or computer to access pornography or to register on sites like AshleyMadison.com is prohibited by Defense Department regulations. Violators can be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Adultery is against the Code of Conduct for members of the armed forces.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said the Pentagon is investigating.

“Of course it’s an issue because conduct is very important,” Carter said. “And we expect good conduct on the part of our people. The services are looking into it and as well they should be– absolutely.”