 A spokeswoman for Gov. Bruce Rauner confirmed Monday the administration is
looking into reports that a half-dozen state government email accounts have
shown up in hackers’ public data dumps from the Ashley Madison website.
The site purports to help married people looking for dalliances find willing
partners.
“Of the six email addresses connected to the data breach, four are associated
with people who no longer work for the state,” said Catherine Kelly, Rauner’s
press secretary.
“The administration has started an investigation to see if any agency policies
were violated, and the agencies will take appropriate action,” Kelly said in an
email. “State agencies discourage using state emails for non-governmental
purposes.”
The Chicago Tribune also reported similar investigations are going on within
Lake and Cook county governments.
Hackers stole a huge amount of data from the online dating site, the advertising
for which includes the phrase, “Life is short. Have an affair.”
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 While credit card and other payment information were apparently
taken, the hackers or third parties also have put up searchable
databases that people can use to check to see if their — or some
other people’s — email address were included in Ashley Madison’s
network.
Ashley Madison site owners claimed nearly 40 million members last
month, but Wired.com has reported that part of the hackers’
motiviation may have been that they considered the site, at best,
misleading.
Wired reported some cybersecurity experts saying the data suggests
40 million members is likely an exaggeration, and the members were
reportedly overwhelmingly male.
Additionally, Wired reported on accusations that many of the female
profiles on the site were faked.
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