Ashley Madison hack: Second massive data dump includes founder's emails

'You can admit it's real now'

The Ashley Madison website (AP)

There's been a second, much larger release of hacked data from the infidelity website Ashley Madison.

The new data dump includes emails sent and received by Noel Biderman, the site's founder and CEO of parent company Avid Life Media.

In a message released alongside this latest leak, the hackers addressed Biderman, who has questioned the authenticity of the first lot of leaked information:

"Hey Noel, you can admit it's real now."

The file with Biderman's name on it has contains nearly 14 gigabytes of data.

The BBC reports that there have been problems unzipping some of the files; an error message is said to crop up.

The hackers' message to CEO Noel Biderman

This week millions of email addresses for customers of Ashley Madison - a website that facilitates extra-marital affairs - were revealed, including those of US government officials, UK civil servants and executives at major corporations.

The US Defense Department and Postal Service is investigating the alleged use of military and other government email accounts on the site.

Former reality TV star and family values campaigner Josh Duggar has admitted to cheating on his wife after reports he had subscribed to the site.

Executive Director of the Louisian Republican party Jason Doré told the Times-Piscuyune paper he was on a list of accounts because the site was used for "opposition research."

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Lawyers have launched a class-action lawsuit seeking some $760 million in damages on behalf of Canadians whose information was leaked; Eliot Shore, a widower who lives in Ottawa, is suing Avid Dating Life Inc and Avid Life Media Inc, the corporations that run Ashley Madison.com.

He said he joined the website "for a short time in search of companionship", but never met anybody in person.

Since the hack last month, Avid Life has indefinitely postponed the adultery site's IPO plans. Avid values itself at $1 billion and reported revenue of $115 million in 2014, up 45 percent from the preceding year.

Additional reporting by Reuters