Ashley Madison membership swells following hack

The affair-oriented website Ashley Madison appears to have gained over 4 million members in recent months, despite the hack that roiled the company in August and caused many to predict its imminent downfall.

According to a counter on the site’s homepage, Ashley Madison now has 43.4 million “anonymous members,” up from roughly 39 million around the time of the data dump that exposed almost every single user.

The August leak from hackers using the name “Impact Team” outed thousands of accounts tied to the White House, top federal agencies and military branches, putting Washington, D.C., on edge for weeks.

Prominent lobbyist and reality TV star Josh Duggar was also revealed in the breach.

Duggar admitted to paying for an Ashley Madison membership during his time as executive director of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group that lobbies against same-sex marriage and abortion.

The hackers said they wanted to publicly shame the company and teach its users a lesson.

“Find yourself in here?” they said in a statement posted with the data dump. “It was [Avid Life Media] that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life.”

Ashley Madison on Tuesday declined to comment on its growing membership. But an August statement from parent company Avid Life Media alluded to a surge in users following the high-profile leak.

“Despite having our business and customers attacked, we are growing,” the company said on Aug. 31 in its last public comment on the breach. “This past week alone, hundreds of thousands of new users signed up for the Ashley Madison platform — including 87,596 women.”

In the wake of the hack, many believed Ashley Madison would be driven out of business. In addition to widespread negative publicity, the company has been hit by a slate of lawsuits from members seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Avid Life Media tried to downplay the speculation in its August statement.

“Recent media reports predicting the imminent demise of Ashley Madison are greatly exaggerated,” the company said.