Tag Archive for: suicide

Top Suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison Hack Committed Suicide in 2014 – Krebs on Security

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When the marital infidelity website AshleyMadison.com learned in July 2015 that hackers were threatening to publish data stolen from 37 million users, the company’s then-CEO Noel Biderman was quick to point the finger at an unnamed former contractor. But as a new documentary series on Hulu reveals [SPOILER ALERT!], there was just one problem with that theory: Their top suspect had killed himself more than a year before the hackers began publishing stolen user data.

The new documentary, The Ashley Madison Affair, begins airing today on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in the United Kingdom. The series features interviews with security experts and journalists, Ashley Madison executives, victims of the breach and jilted spouses.

The series also touches on shocking new details unearthed by KrebsOnSecurity and Jeremy Bullock, a data scientist who worked with the show’s producers at the Warner Bros. production company Wall to Wall Media. Bullock had spent many hours poring over the hundreds of thousands of emails that the Ashley Madison hackers stole from Biderman and published online in 2015.

Wall to Wall reached out in July 2022 about collaborating with Bullock after KrebsOnSecurity published A Retrospective on the 2015 Ashley Madison Breach. That piece explored how Biderman — who is Jewish — had become the target of concerted harassment campaigns by anti-Semitic and far-right groups online in the months leading up to the hack.

Whoever hacked Ashley Madison had access to all employee emails, but they only released Biderman’s messages — three years worth. Apropos of my retrospective report, Bullock found that a great many messages in Biderman’s inbox were belligerent and anti-Semitic screeds from a former Ashley Madison employee named William Brewster Harrison.

William Harrison’s employment contract with Ashley Madison parent Avid Life Media.

The messages show that Harrison was hired in March 2010 to help promote Ashley Madison online, but the messages also reveal Harrison was heavily involved in helping to create and cultivate phony female accounts on the service.

There is evidence to suggest that in 2010 Harrison was directed to harass the owner…

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Kids’ intimate files — including suicide attempts — are being put online after ransomware gangs hack schools: report

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The confidential documents stolen from schools and dumped online by ransomware gangs are raw, intimate and graphic.

They describe student sexual assaults, psychiatric hospitalizations, abusive parents, truancy — even suicide attempts.

“Please do something,” begged a student in one leaked file, recalling the trauma of continually bumping into an ex-abuser at a school in Minneapolis.

Other victims talked about wetting the bed or crying themselves to sleep.

Complete sexual assault case folios containing these details were among more than 300,000 files dumped online in March after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools refused to pay a $1 million ransom.

Other exposed data included medical records, discrimination complaints, Social Security numbers and contact information of district employees.

Rich in digitized data, the nation’s schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed to paper in locked cabinets. “In this case, everybody has a key,” said cybersecurity expert Ian Coldwater, whose son attends a Minneapolis high school.

Often strapped for cash, districts are grossly ill-equipped not just to defend themselves but to respond diligently and transparently when attacked, especially as they struggle to help kids catch up from the pandemic and grapple with shrinking budgets.

Months after the Minneapolis attack, administrators have not delivered on their promise to inform individual victims.


Ransomware gangs dumped 300,000 files, including medical record and Social Security numbers, from Minneapolis Public Schools.
Ransomware gangs dumped 300,000 files, including medical record and Social Security numbers, from Minneapolis Public Schools.
AP

Unlike for hospitals, no federal law exists to require this notification from schools.

The Associated Press reached families of six students whose sexual assault case files were exposed.

The message from a reporter was the first time anyone had alerted them.

“Truth is, they didn’t notify us about anything,” said a mother whose son’s case file has 80 documents.

Even when schools catch a ransomware attack in progress, the data are typically already gone.

That was what Los…

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Security Forces thwart ISIS suicide attack in Hasaka – ANHA | HAWARNEWS

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The General Command of the Internal Security Forces – North and East Syria issued a statement announcing that its forces had responded to a suicide attack carried out by two ISIS mercenaries in the city of Hasaka.

 “On Friday, March 31, two suicide attackers of ISIS were wearing uniform of SDF and sneaked to a center of the Internet Security Forces in al-Nashwa neighborhood in Hasaka to carry out the suicide attack.”

The statement added, “Clashes took place between the attackers and our forces for ten minutes, however, the latter thwarted the attack.”

According to the statement, “The attack resulted in the killing of the two attackers and seizure of their ammunition, including two AK-47s, 20 magazines, eight bombs, and two explosive belts.”

After the attack the Security Forces launched investigations to uncover the circumstances of the attack, called on all residents of the area to be aware of such attacks and demanded that concerned authorities be informed about any suspicious movements.

a.k

ANHA

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Suicide Prevention Awareness Month  – Support for Persons at Elevated Risk for Suicide > United States Coast Guard > My Coast Guard News

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If you are close to someone who has experienced a recent suicidal crisis and who may not be fully recovered. How do you think about their risk and what kind of support can you provide?  It is likely that you or someone else played a key role in encouraging their pursuit of urgent mental health care and/or a formal suicide risk assessment. Regardless of what the risk was assessed to be at the time, it is important to know suicide risk is dynamic and subject to change based on a variety of factors. 

Factors Influencing Continuing Suicide Risk Following an Acute Crisis

  • Untreated depression or anxiety

  • Ongoing stressor that is unresolved and/or subject to intensify

  • Persistent problems with sleep or ability to function

  • Unrelenting hopelessness and/or pessimism

  • Misuse of alcohol and/or substances

  • Intermittent or persistent thoughts of death or suicide

  • Access to lethal means to harm oneself

Supporting Those with Elevated Risk of Suicide

You may have had an initial conversation with your family member, friend, or coworker about their crisis and your connection may have supplied an important dose of hope and encouragement.  It is vital that you convey your continuing availability and support, that they are not traversing this difficult time alone.  Your listening and empathic understanding during this time is indispensable.  Your time spent with them will afford you the opportunity to encourage initiating or sustaining their participation in treatment (medication and psychotherapy have strong evidence bases for reducing suicide risk), watching for signs of acute increased risk for suicide (establishes a basis for urgent evaluation/care), reminding them of reasons to live, and assisting with lethal means safety. 

Lethal Means Safety

Restricting access to the available means to harm oneself has been shown to reduce suicides.  Studies have shown that people have a preference for a given means and that many do not seek out other methods if a preferred means is not available.  The time between thinking of suicide and acting on it can span minutes, but also subside as quickly.  Restricting access to lethal means…

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