Needham Among Top Mass. Communities for Ashley Madison Affairs

By PATRICK LUCE (Patch Staff)

Personal data from a hack of the Ashley Madison hookup website that promotes “discreet” dating encounters continues to leak. And more information is becoming available and accessible to the public on the Internet.

And now Massachusetts, and many of its communities, have found itself in the crosshairs of that publicized information.

A list of the top 100 communities in the state with people using the site has Needham ranked number 93 with 768 users.

One Reddit data collection identified Massachusetts as the sixth highest on the list of states with the most unfaithful husbands and wives in the country, with more than 300,000 users - although the District of Columbia comes in higher — in terms of dollars spent on Ashley Madison per capita.

And another data collection has identified the numbers of users in each county, and each state in the United States, putting those towns on a map called “Malfideleco,” which means “infidelity” in the Esperanto language.

Tecnilógica, a Madrid-based digital agency, created the world map that shows the distribution of Ashley Madison users around the world without identifying names. It also analyzed their composition in terms of gender balance (the list of New Jersey towns are below).

On the Reddit user list, Alabama was first, followed by Colorado, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Connecticut.

In a 2014 report, Psychology Today magazine said more than 90 percent of Americans believe infidelity is unacceptable, yet 30 to 40 percent of the people engage in it. “Infidelity is associated with adverse outcomes such as depression, domestic violence, divorce, even homicide,” according to the report.

The revelations go back more than a month, when a group of hackers called The Impact Team broke into Ashley Madison’s data, obtaining names and personal information — credit card info, sexual habits, likes and desires and such.

Some have targeted the hackers and the company, looking to punish them both for the data breach. The Canadian government, where Ashley Madison is located, said it is investigating two suicides possibly related to the hack, and some attorneys who have filed $578 million class action lawsuit against the company.

Ashley Madison is offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the people involved in the hack.

Here is the list of the 100 Massachusetts communities identified as having the most Ashley Madison users:

1. Boston – 47,951
2. Worcester – 13,079
3. Cambridge – 12,486
4. Watertown – 10,071
5. Quincy – 9,420
6. Lowell – 8,314
7. Somerville – 7,035
8. Newton – 6,496
9. Webster – 6,053
10. Westfield – 5,873
11. New Bedford – 4,495
12. Fall River – 4,491
13. Framingham – 4,434
14. Brockton – 4,411
15. Waltham – 3,876
16. Haverhill – 3,710
17. Lynn – 3,660
18. Randolph – 3,293
19. Pittsfield – 3,219
20. Malden – 3,201
21. Agawam – 3,146
22. Taunton – 3,136
23. Woburn – 3,081
24. Beverly – 3,032
25. Southampton – 3,009
26. Brookline – 3,002
27. Natick – 2,958
28. Marlboro – 2,912
29. Norwood – 2,845
30. Chicopee – 2,794
31. Gardner – 2,776
32. Chelsea – 2,689
33. Peabody – 2,639
34. Leominster – 2,625
35. Revere – 2,607
36. Wakefield – 2,551
37. Fitchburg – 2,549
38. Methuen – 2,492
39. Attleboro – 2,426
40. Westwood – 2,413
41. Allston – 2,386
42. Abington – 2,370
43. Shewsbury – 2,359
44. Northampton – 2,326
45. Braintree – 2,286
46. Grafton – 2.251
47. Gloucester – 2,201
48. Stoughton – 2,067
49. Melrose – 1,933
50. Acton – 1,857
51. Bellerica – 1,831
52. Tewksbury – 1,800
53. Palmer – 1,777
54. Danvers – 1,771
55. Holyoke – 1,714
56. Hyannis – 1,700
57. Rockland – 1,671
58. North Andover – 1,586
59. West Springfield – 1,537
60. Chelmsford – 1,533
61. Jamaica Plain – 1,516
62. Adams – 1,494
63. North Attleboro – 1,453
64. Saugus – 1,450
65. Newburyport – 1,423
66. Norton – 1,361
67. Westborough – 1,350
68. Dedham – 1,348
69. Holden – 1,272
70. Roslindale – 1,177
71. Wayland – 1,165
72. Stoneham – 1,123
73. Hingham – 1,097
74. Winthrop – 1,039
75. Ludlow - 991
76. Weymouth – 984
77. Amesbury – 960
78. Sudbury - 960
79. Walpole – 953
80. Dudley – 915
81. Southbridge - 890
82. Hull – 875
83. Marblehead – 872
84. Athol - 852
85. North Dartmouth – 847
86. Medway - 834
87. East Weymouth - 823
88. South Weymouth - 816
89. Raynham – 815
90. Millbury - 795
91. Buzzard’s Bay – 776
92. Halifax – 772
93. Needham - 768
94. East Falmouth – 766
95. Fairhaven - 756
96. Mattapan – 751
97. Easthampton - 731
98. Scituate – 712
99. Whitman - 705
100. Mashpee – 699