The Horn reported yesterday that over 15,000 government work e-mails have been linked to user profiles on the Ashley Madison website, which sets people up with extra marital affairs. Now it’s been revealed that at least one of these accounts is linked to a White House employee.
The Associated Press is reporting the government user list includes an information technology administrator in the White House’s support staff, at least two assistant U.S. attorneys, a Justice Department investigator, a division chief, and a government hacker and counterterrorism employee at the Homeland Security Department. Others visited from networks operated by the Pentagon.
Such use raises questions about what personal business is acceptable — and what websites are OK to visit — for U.S. workers on taxpayer time, especially those with sensitive jobs who could face blackmail.
The AP was able to trace their government Internet connections, logged by the website over five years and as recently as June. They encompass more than two dozen agencies, such as the departments of State, Justice, Energy, Treasury and Transportation. Others came from House or Senate computer networks.
This review was the first to reveal that federal workers used their office systems to access the site, based on their Internet Protocol addresses associated with credit card transactions. It focused on searching for government employees in especially sensitive positions who could perhaps become blackmail targets.
The Associated Press contributed to this article