Still causing problems. The Aug. 18 Ashley Madison hack has produced 37 million email addresses of people with accounts on the cheating site — including disgraced former 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar. Now the Associated Press has revealed that hundreds of government employees, many of whom have sensitive jobs, have also been exposed in the scandal.
The AP reports that at least two assistant U.S. attorneys, an information technology administrator in the White House's support staff, a Justice Department investigator, a division chief, and a government hacker and counterterrorism employee at the Homeland Security Department have all been listed in the hack.
The employees with the sensitive jobs are of the most concern because they could be subjected to blackmail. The AP also notes that since many of those government employees accessed the site on their office's Internet connections, it raises the question of what is an acceptable use of taxpayers' time and money.
The majority of the government employees were discreet enough not to use their official work email addresses, but many logged on from the government's Internet network.
The AP also reports that those government employees involved in the hack are a part of more than two dozen different agencies.
"I was doing some things I shouldn't have been doing," a Justice Department investigator told the AP. That same investigator also told the news organization he would reveal his discretions to his family before bowing to blackmail. "I've worked too hard all my life to be a victim of blackmail. That wouldn't happen," he said.
