Users of the site have filed law suits in both the US and Canada Legal pressure on Ashley Madison and its parent company is picking up with more class-action lawsuits filed this week in the U.S. against the extramarital hookup site, alleging its negligence in protecting confidential user data.Suits filed in federal courts in California and Texas by people using John Doe as a pseudonym, claim for damages, alleging that Avid Life Media, the parent company based in Toronto, did not have adequate and reasonable measures to secure the data of users from being compromised, and failed to notify users in time of the breach.[ ALSO ON CSO: Project Unicorn offers $500,000 reward for Ashley Madison hackers ]Avid Life Media said it had been made aware of an attack on its systems. Hacker group, Impact Team, released data last week that it claimed it had obtained from the website. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Central District of California, Western Division claims that on or about July 20, 2015, the hackers downloaded “highly-sensitive personal, financial, and identifying information of the website’s some 37 million users.”The hackers then threatened to leak the data if the website was not shut down, and published some parts of the information last week. “Among the data compromised and downloaded were profiles of individuals who executed the option to scrub their user profiles and all associated data and paid $19 to Defendants to do so, yet Defendants failed to actually scrub the data,” according to the complaint. “One of the primary purposes of Defendants product and services was confidentiality and anonymity,” according to the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.At least five suits seeking class-action status have been filed in Canada and in U.S. courts in California, Texas and Missouri, according to NBC.That Ashley Madison would face user lawsuits was apparent soon after the hack was disclosed, with law firms taking the initiative.The Rosen Law Firm, for example, last week announced it had initiated a class action lawsuit investigation regarding a potential debit and credit card breach at Ashley Madison, and was also looking at consumer fraud claims in connection with the website’s “Full Delete” service, which purported to eliminate user profiles and traces on its website and database in exchange for a fee. It invited members of Ashley Madison to contact the law firm to participate in the class-action lawsuit or discuss their rights.In the Canada lawsuit, Eliot Shore, described as a disabled widower in Ottawa, has filed a national class proceeding on behalf of all Canadians who subscribed to Ashley Madison and whose personal information was disclosed to the public. The lawsuit alleges that Ashley Madison failed to protect the information, which includes users’ personal names, emails, home addresses and message history, according to the lawyers. Related content news Multibillion-dollar cybersecurity training market fails to fix the supply-demand imbalance Despite money pouring into programs around the world, training organizations have not managed to ensure employment for professionals, while entry-level professionals are finding it hard to land a job By Samira Sarraf Oct 02, 2023 6 mins CSO and CISO CSO and CISO CSO and CISO news Royal family’s website suffers Russia-linked cyberattack Pro-Russian hacker group KillNet took responsibility for the attack days after King Charles condemned the invasion of Ukraine. By Michael Hill Oct 02, 2023 2 mins DDoS Cyberattacks feature 10 things you should know about navigating the dark web A lot can be found in the shadows of the internet from sensitive stolen data to attack tools for sale, the dark web is a trove of risks for enterprises. Here are a few things to know and navigate safely. By Rosalyn Page Oct 02, 2023 13 mins Cybercrime Security news ShadowSyndicate Cybercrime gang has used 7 ransomware families over the past year Researchers from Group-IB believe it's likely the group is an independent affiliate working for multiple ransomware-as-a-service operations By Lucian Constantin Oct 02, 2023 4 mins Hacker Groups Ransomware Cybercrime Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe