Hackers say they’ve leaked massive database of Ashley Madison users to the Internet

A message posted online said “Time’s Up!” and accused parent company Avid Life Media of deceit and incompetence.

“Now everyone gets to see their data,” the statement said.

Toronto-based Avid Life Media, Inc. said in a statement Tuesday that it was aware of the claim and was investigating.

“The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner,” the company said.

The Associated Press wasn’t immediately able to determine the authenticity of the leaked documents, but several security analysts who have scanned the data say they believe the dump is genuine.

One of them, TrustedSec CEO Dave Kennedy, said the dump included full names, passwords, street addresses, credit card information and “an extensive amount of internal data.”

In a blog post, he said it seemed the hackers had access to Ashley Madison “for a long period of time.”

Errata Security CEO Rob Graham said he had counted more than 36 million accounts, although many appeared to be bogus. The overwhelming majority of the users were male, he said in a separate blog post.

The hackers’ motives aren’t entirely clear, although they have accused Ashley Madison of faking female profiles to keep male users interested.

A call to Avid Life Media wasn’t immediately returned. The hackers didn’t immediately return messages.

However, Huffington Post reports that Ashley Madison’s former chief technology officer, Raja Bhatia, insisted that he and a team of international investigators have found no evidence that the data is authentic.

Bhatia said, for example, that his company had never stored credit card information, which is present in the latest leak.

“I’m still resolute with my initial assessment,” Bhatia told HuffPost early Wednesday morning, noting that it is an “ongoing process.”