Ashley Madison CEO quits, company says they’re adjusting to breach

Noel Biderman, the CEO of Avid Life Media, resigned on Friday, weeks after a group calling itself Impact Team published compromised data, including details on more than 30 million Ashley Madison account holders.

Avid Life Media (ALM) is the company behind the adult playgrounds of Ashley Madison, Cougar Life, and Established Men.

In July, Impact Team announced that they’d compromised the company’s networks, because they profit on the pain of others, warning that if Ashley Madison and Established Men were not taken offline, they would release the compromised records to the public. They made good on their promise on August 18.

In all, Impact Team released nearly 70GB of files in three different releases. One of the releases contained Biderman’s emails. The leaked communications show that he was interested in exploiting a vulnerability at a rival company (Nerve.com) in order to steal customers, and allegedly had numerous affairs himself.

In one of the leaked emails, the largest shareholder in ALM (Jason DeZwirek) sent a message to Biderman with a single link – a story on Financial Post detailing how CEOs get fired during the aftermath of breaches. While not foreshadowing, the email and the article demonstrate that investors are starting to hold their executives accountable.

In a statement about Biderman’s resignation, ALM said that the change “is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees. We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base.”

“We are actively adjusting to the attack on our business and members’ privacy by criminals. We will continue to provide access to our unique platforms for our worldwide members.”

Biderman stated Ashley Madison in 2001, the company was acquired in 2007 by ALM.