‘Secret Sexual Fantasies’: Hackers Threaten to Expose 37M Cheating Spouses

Avid Life Media, the parent company for the infidelity-based social networking site, which touts itself as "the most recognized and reputable married dating company," confirmed the breach of its systems, which compromises customers' personal data including their real names, credit card information, nude photos and "secret sexual fantasies," which the hackers, who call themselves the Impact Team, have threatened to make public, according to the KrebsOnSecurity blog.

The hackers' demands? That AshleyMadison.com, whose slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair," and the affiliated site Established Men.com be taken "offline permanently in all forms."

Avid Life Media says it is "working diligently and feverishly" to protect intellectual property on the site, and are working with law enforcement to uncover those behind the hack.

The company also disputed the claim made by the hackers that a "paid delete" tool on the site would not remove all information connected to a member's profile.  Avid Life said in a statement that it would be offering the function to customers free of charge.

ALM CEO Noel Biderman apologized to customers, and said in a statement that the company believes the software system had been compromised by someone with access to internal networks.

"It was definitely a person here that was not an employee but certainly had touched our technical services," he said.

"We're not denying this happened," added Biderman. "Like us or not, this is still a criminal act."

Prior to the attack, AshleyMadison.com planned to raise $200 million through an initial public offering at the London Stock Exchange.

Dating site Adult FriendFinder site, which boasts more than 60 million members, was also compromised by hackers two months ago.