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Bad For Cheaters, Good For The Economy? Ashley Madison Hacktivist’s Unexpected Effect

There have been many victims of the recent Ashley Madison hack, the adulterer website that sports the tagline “Life is short, have an affair.”

Hacktivists behind the hacking demanded that the creators take the website down earlier this summer due to morality reasons. The owners of the company refused, so the hackers retaliated by publicly posting every user of the site, including names, credit card information, and other more personal tidbits about the victims such as their sexual fantasies.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some big names emerged immediately after the information release.

Jeff Ashton, the prosecutor in the Ashley Madison case, was exposed by the hackers. Ashton issued a public apology for his infidelity in August.

Also exposed was Josh Duggar, known for his role in the reality TV show “19 Kids and Counting.” He was quoted by The Christian Post asking for forgiveness from his wife and God himself for being unfaithful.

I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife. I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.

In August, several government employees had the spotlight pointed on them when it was revealed that they had used their government email addresses to register for Ashley Madison. It is believed that out of grief, one of these men committed suicide last month.

With all the attention the story is getting, wives all over the world have been hiring private investigators out of suspicion that their marriage isn’t what they thought it was. Wired reports that one private investigation service by the name of Trustify saw a fifteen-fold increase in business in the weeks after the hacking.

More recently, it was announced that BioClinics, a self-described leader of “DNA testing, Drug testing and Polygraph (Lie Detector) tests,” has also seen a surge in business. UK-based Manchester Evening News reports that the increase in lie detector tests related to infidelity has been as much as 36 percent for the company in the United Kingdom. “The Ashley Madison case is the most likely cause, as it has brought infidelity into sharper focus,” scientific director Nichola McChrystal of BioClinics was quoted as saying.

BioClinics boasts that in over 95 percent of the cases where the lie detectors indicated deception, the unfaithful spouse has admitted their guilt. However, the service has also displayed innocence as well, and BioClinics states that it has allowed people to put their suspicions behind them; a much needed positive impact from an information leak that caused so many problems.

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