Some Marylanders May Be Exposed In Ashley Madison Hack

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The cheating website Ashley Madison is scrambling to deal with the release of more confidential material as some---including some apparently from Maryland---scramble to deal with the fallout of their email addresses being leaked.

Mary Bubala has more.

Hackers continue to expose cheating spouses around the world, releasing 32 million members' dating profiles and personal information. Around 15,000 email addresses appear to trace back to US government accounts.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the Pentagon is looking into some of the people on the list who used military addresses.

"Of course it's an issue because conduct is very important and we expect good conduct on the part of our people," Carter said.

The website Fusion reports Washington DC has the second highest percentage of paying members of Ashley Madison---with Maryland rounding out the top 10.

On Twitter, a user has released an apparent breakdown of government users, including 22 inside the Montgomery County government, 11 inside Baltimore City government and five inside Maryland state government.

At this moment, Ashley Madison is still operating but traffic on its website dropped 40% in July, when the hackers first threatened to release data unless the website shut down.

The company says the hackers are criminals who "appointed themselves" as "moral judge, juror and executioner."

The hackers claim they're just exposing security flaws in a site offering a "100% discreet service."

"I think it's going to be very difficult for Ashley Madison to survive this," said Bloomberg Businessweek Features Editor Sheelah Kolhatkar.

Ashley Madison says it has closed the unauthorized access points on its website but right now the FBI and Canadian police are investigating the Toronto-based company.