Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday that the military is investigating reports that thousands of troops signed up for a website that facilitates extramarital affairs.
“Of course it’s an issue because conduct is very important and we expect good conduct of our people,” Carter told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon.
Hackers released data this week for 32 million users of Ashley Madison, a website that uses the motto “Life is short. Have an affair,” on its homepage. Among those, more than 15,000 belonged to email addresses ending in .mil or .gov.
Users did not have to validate an email address, so it’s possible some of the accounts are fakes, though the site’s parent company did tell Reuters that some of the information is accurate.
The Army appears to have the highest number of users, with more than 6,700 users registering with email addresses ending in us.army.mil. The list also included domain names for all 10 of the Navy’s active aircraft carriers, along with other ships and units.
Having an affair is punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, though that charge is rarely brought on its own. The prohibition on adultery is often tacked onto to other charges, such as sexual assault or sexual harassment.
Earlier this week, the FBI said it was running its own investigation into how the company was hacked.
