Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

We’re in the last days of 2015 and I just wanted to take a moment to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who has read and supported this blog over the last year. I enjoy writing for this blog, but there would be little point in continuing if there were no readers. So, thank you all for bearing with me and supporting my work. Going by the numbers, the following have been the ten most read pieces from the last 12 months. Inevitably, the crannog at Drumclay figures prominently, with two entries on the list. I'm afraid that this will be the case for 2016 too as there is much work to be done to secure answers and positive change from Government departments that seem more keen on pretending that all is well (who would have guessed it?). Thankfully, the rest of the list covers a broad selection of topics from aspects of data analysis (Ashley Madison & company accounts) to lightweight photo-essays (The Floral Hall & Poulnabrone), along with my IR&DD research pro...

Introduction In July 2015 a large amount of data was stolen from Ashley Madison , an online business dedicated to facilitating people who sought to have extramarital affairs. The hackers who stole the data, calling themselves ‘The Impact Team’, attempted to use it for blackmail, insisting that Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site EstablishedMen.com be permanently shut down. On June 22nd, when the company failed to comply, a sample of the data was released publicly. Obviously, negotiations didn’t go as well as might have been hoped and in August the full dataset was made available on the internet. Late in the same month a further data dump was made available that included a number of corporate emails, including a substantial number from CEO Noel Biderman. Since that time, it is believed that a number of enterprising petty criminals have attempted to use the Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to blackmail alleged account holders. Let me be clear. There are tangles ...