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Cheating website subscribers included WH, Congress workers

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WASHINGTON — Hundreds of U.S. government employees — including 
some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and law 
enforcement agencies — used Internet connections in their 
federal offices to access and pay membership fees to the 
cheating website Ashley Madison, The Associated Press has 
learned.

The AP traced many of the accounts exposed by hackers back to 
federal workers. They included at least two assistant U.S. 
attorneys; an information technology administrator in the 
Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an 
investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a 
government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and 
another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. 
counterterrorism response team.

Few actually paid for their services with their government email 
accounts. But AP traced their government Internet connections — 
logged by the website over five years — and reviewed their 
credit-card transactions to identify them. They included workers 
at more than two dozen Obama administration agencies, including 
the departments of State, Defense, Justice, Energy, Treasury, 
Transportation and Homeland Security. Others came from House or 
Senate computer networks.

The AP is not naming the government subscribers it found because 
they are not elected officials or accused of a crime.

Hackers this week released detailed records on millions of 
people registered with the website one month after the break-in 
at Ashley Madison’s parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life 
Media Inc. The website — whose slogan is, “Life is short. Have 
an affair” — is marketed to facilitate extramarital affairs.

Many federal customers appeared to use non-government email 
addresses with handles such as “sexlessmarriage,” 
‘’soontobesingle” or “latinlovers.” Some Justice Department 
employees appeared to use pre-paid credit cards to help preserve 
their anonymity but connected to the service from their office 
computers.

“I was doing some things I shouldn’t have been doing,” a Justice 
Department investigator told the AP. Asked about the threat of 
blackmail, the investigator said if prompted he would reveal his 
actions to his family and employer to prevent it. “I’ve worked 
too hard all my life to be a victim of blackmail. That wouldn’t 
happen,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he 
was deeply embarrassed and not authorized by the government to 
speak to reporters using his name.

The AP’s analysis also found hundreds of transactions associated 
with Department of Defense networks, either at the Pentagon or 
from armed services connections elsewhere.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the Pentagon was looking 
into the list of people who used military email addresses. 
Adultery can be a criminal offense under the Uniform Code of 
Military Justice.

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

The AP’s review was the first to reveal that federal workers 
used their office systems to access the site, based on their 
Internet Protocol addresses associated with credit card 
transactions. It focused on searching for government employees 
in especially sensitive positions who could perhaps become 
blackmail targets. The government hacker at the Homeland 
Security Department, who did not respond to phone or email 
messages, included photographs of his wife and infant son on his 
Facebook page.

One assistant U.S. attorney declined through a spokesman to 
speak to the AP, and another did not return phone or email 
messages.

A White House spokesman said Thursday he could not immediately 
comment on the matter. The IT administrator in the White House 
did not return email messages.

Federal policies vary for employees by agency as to whether they 
would be permitted during work hours to use websites like Ashley 
Madison, which could fall under the same category as dating 
websites. But it raises questions about what personal business 
is acceptable — and what websites are OK to visit — for 
government workers on taxpayer time, especially employees who 
could face blackmail.

The Homeland Security Department rules for use of work computers 
say the devices should be used for only for official purposes, 
though “limited personal use is authorized as long as this use 
does not interfere with official duties or cause degradation of 
network services.” Employees are barred from using government 
computers to access “inappropriate sites” including those that 
are “obscene, hateful, harmful, malicious, hostile, threatening, 
abusive, vulgar, defamatory, profane, or racially, sexually, or 
ethnically objectionable.”

The hackers who took credit for the break-in had accused the 
website’s owners of deceit and incompetence, and said the 
company refused to bow to their demands to close the site. Avid 
Life released a statement calling the hackers criminals. It 
added that law enforcement in both the U.S. and Canada is 
investigating and declined comment beyond its statement Tuesday 
that it was investigating the hackers’ claims.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/cheating-
website-subscribers-included-wh-congress-
workers/2015/08/20/9b6babea-47a7-11e5-9f53-
d1e3ddfd0cda_story.html

  

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Cheating website subscribers included WH, Congress workers "Lolololol!" <lololol@divorces.com> - 2015-08-26 08:12 +0200

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