Hackers Post Cheating Site's Customer Data; Pistorius Will Not Be Released Friday.
CURNOW: Welcome back. Hackers have followed through with their threat against the cheating website ashleymadison.com. A month after they warned the site to shut down or risk a huge darter leak. The hackers, known simply as Impact Team, published the site's customer information on what's known as the "dark Web." Let's go CNNMoney correspondent Laurie Segall for more. There's so many questions here, first of all, why is there a cheating website, who goes on it? But there's also the broader concerns around hacking. What's happening here?</s>LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's actually pretty scary when you think about it. And just the amount of data that was published, Robyn. We're talking 35 gigabytes once you download it of data. That is a huge, huge amount. And let me get specifically to what has been put out there on the dark Web. We're talking 33 million accounts, like 36 million email addresses; again, you have to take that with a grain of salt because sometimes people put fake emails, fake usernames. But they don't put fake payment information. So there are -- you're seeing a lot of that, credit card information, home addresses, phone numbers, also internal corporate data. You know I spoke to one security researcher, Robyn, and he said the amount of information the hackers were able to take is just unprecedented. And it was on the dark Web, right? But now what we're seeing in the next couple -- in the last couple hours is this information is finding its way over to the open Web. There's a site right now -- I don't want to name it -- but there's a site out there right now where people can just put in an email address and see if someone they know is on this -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Well, I mean, we had a few people in the newsroom, somebody suggesting they might go and see if their ex-husband's name is on that list. But I mean, that's what people are now going to be asking, can you go and just find people's details and names very easily, not just on the dark Web? I mean, can anybody go and type something in and get some information?</s>SEGALL: Yes, and I think we have to take this with a grain of salt, right? And people might put fake names out there. Now that being said, there was so much data released. We're talking credit card information, geolocation data. There's another person that's working on using a Google Map to kind of identify where the most cheaters are. So it's pretty disturbing. You've got to think if you're on that list if you were using Ashley Madison whether or not you agree with this, you're probably pretty worried right now. And it's to chat a little bit about who's behind this. We look at -- you mentioned the Impact Team. This is the first we're hearing of this hacking collective, this hacking group. And they say that they're doing this for moral reasons. They don't believe in Ashley Madison, this site that promotes infidelity. It's a very controversial site. And I want to read you a little bit of their manifesto, because they also put that out there, along with this enormous amount of data. They said, "Find yourself in here? Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you'll get over it." So there are a lot of --</s>SEGALL: -- folks right now who are pretty worried about this. And you also have to think, sure, there might be a lot of tough conversations, potential divorce attorneys. But you know, people are really, really worried also about identity theft since now all this information is out there and it's also making its way to the open Web -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Indeed. And put aside the moral implications of this, the dubious nature of some of this activity, it also, again, reinforces -- you've kind of touched on that -- the issue of passwords and being protected on the Internet. Really you're not. Work on the assumption that anything that goes online is possibly going to make it out there. Isn't that basically the lesson out of this -- again?</s>SEGALL: Yes. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but how many times do we have to sit here and talk about another day and another hack and personal information getting out there? There's nothing really as a consumer you could have done if you thought that this site was going to protect you. They swear to secrecy. And as fate would have it, it was very, very easy to get into. I was just at a hacking conference actually in Las Vegas, with a lot of security researchers. And one of them showed me. He did this legally because the Fortune 500 company had hired him to actually try to actively break in, which people should be doing that. And he was able to break into their system by picking up the phone and getting someone at a help desk to click a link. And he was able to take over as many servers as he wanted. So it just shouldn't be that easy. And this is very eye-opening -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Laurie Segall, thank you so much, very eye-opening. I think that's one way to put it -- thanks so much for all of your reporting. Now I just want to bring you up to date on some breaking news just in to CNN. South Africa's justice minister says Oscar Pistorius, the Olympic runner, will not be released on house arrest on Friday. Pistorius was convicted of culpable homicide and has spent 10 months in jail for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. He was sentenced to five years in prison but is eligible for release on parole. That had been expected to happen on Friday. Before this decision or at least his comment from the justice minister. David McKenzie joins me now live from Johannesburg. What's happening? This is a major U-turn by the South African government.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a U-turn and it's certainly been left to the last second because as you say, Oscar Pistorius, disgraced Olympian, who killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, and was set to be released on correctional supervision on Friday to be released to his uncle's house. And now there is this U-turn. The justice ministry, through their spokesman, telling CNN that they are now suspending the parole board's decision, the parole board, which met in June and decided that he would at least get released in this way, and that they should review it again. Yesterday the justice minister got on local radio and TV, saying that he questioned the release of Pistorius during Women's Month here in South Africa. A women's group had petitioned the justice ministry, saying that it shouldn't happen and it sent a bad signal in terms of violence against women, particularly given the high-profile nature of this case. But it does seem now that his release is put on hold, at least for now. There will be some time -- I'm not entirely sure how long -- before that parole board can meet again and reassess the case. This is under the remit, says the spokesman, of the Justice and Correctional Services minister to query a parole like this. They're also saying that the parole board met too soon to come up with this decision, even though one-sixth of the sentence is well in line with South African law, say legal analysts.</s>CURNOW: Indeed, well in line with the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, to be specific. I mean, is this an indication of political interference in the work of a judicial commission, expect to be the parole board is working for Correctional Services, not for the Justice Ministry?</s>MCKENZIE: Well, at this point, I think interference, it's too early to say. But certainly political pressure would have played some role in this decision. And the justice minister said as much, that they have been petitioned by an NGO which works on women's rights to query, at least, the release of Oscar Pistorius. Now whether a person who had been involved in a similar crime would have gotten this level of attention, all the way up to a cabinet minister post, that's highly unlikely. So in that case, yes. The nature, the high- profile nature, the fact that the world's media is here in South Africa awaiting his supposed walk out of prison would mean there's a lot of attention on this case. And that seems to be playing into the justice minister's decision. But they are saying this is their right within the law to question a parole decision and it doesn't mean that Oscar Pistorius won't leave prison. But it does appear that he's not going to leave prison soon, that's for sure -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: All right. It's unclear how this is going to play out and of course there is an appeal scheduled --</s>CURNOW: -- for November. So Oscar Pistorius, it appears, not going under correctional supervision on Friday; David McKenzie, thank you for updating us on this story. Appreciate it. That does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Don't go anywhere. "WORLD SPORT" with Alex Thomas is up next.