Ashley Madison hackers trying to extort many, including El Pasoans

At least two suicides in the U.S. are now potentially being linked to the recent hacking of the Ashley Madison cheating web site.

Information about its customers — including some in the Borderland — has been leaked.

ABC-7 spoke with the owner of an El Paso IT company about the situation. People who cheat on their spouses are always open to possible extortion. But with the personal details of millions of alleged cheaters now posted online, blackmailers are pouncing on the opportunity to make some money.

Hackers, calling themselves “The Impact Team,” have already released 30 gigabytes of personal and financial information from alleged Ashley Madison customers. The millions of email addresses leaked include at least two dozen reported Vatican addresses and about 13,000 “dot-mil” or “dot-gov” accounts.

“I am aware and of course it’s an issue because conduct is very important,” said Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

Extramarital affairs violate the uniform code of military justice. ABC-7 found a database on Interworks that listed Ashley Madison customers by zip code and found some in the Borderland. It showed 134 customers in the 79924 area, another 64 in 79904, 82 in 79928, just eight in 79908 and 60 customers in Las Cruces’ 88005 zip code.

ABC-7 also found an Ashley Madison media release from last year, detailing its “top cheating” El Paso neighborhoods.

“The biggest scare of it is there’s a big amount of money involved and its pure blackmail is what it comes down to,” said Nils Desmet, owner of the El Paso technology management company Makios IT Services. “I have something of yours, and if you want it back, or if you don’t want me to show it to other people, you’re going to have to pay me.”

Desmet said the hackers and blackmailers — those charging hundreds of dollars to extort those whose email addresses are revealed — are likely linked.

“I liked it better in the old days where they hacked for pride and to show the government and Sony’s and the Target’s, ‘Look guys, you need to work on this, you’ve got to fix this.’ And now it becomes crime, cyber-crime.”

Desmet said staying off web sites like Ashley Madison isn’t enough to protect yourself.

“It’s not just these web sites, its anything,” Desmet said. “It’s our banks, its our Home Depots, its our Targets … Anything you do online you have to be aware there is something that could potentially bite you in the butt.”

In a statement, Ashley Madison says: “We will continue to put forth substantial efforts into removing any information unlawfully released to the public, as well as continuing to operate our business.”

A suicide by a San Antonio police captain is the latest to be possibly linked to the data leak.

Desmet said the best way to protect yourself online is to use common sense.