Lifestyle

Icelandic Minister of Finance registered on Ashley Madison as IceHot1

By Staff

Bjarni Benediktsson Icelandic Minister of Finance registered on Ashley Madison with the username IceHot1. Photo/Ernir Eyjólfsson

The Minister of Finance, Bjarni Benediktsson, registered on the website Ashley Madison which offered married people the opportunity to find partners for illicit sexual relationships. Bjarni‘s wife Þóra Margrét Baldvinsdóttir made the announcement on her Facebook page in a post, in which she tags her husband. Þóra explains that the two registered together, and that it had been done out of curiosity.

The local news site visir.is has revealed that Bjarni‘s username on the site was IceHot1.

One of 128 Icelandic users

According to previous reports by local newspaper Fréttablaðið 128 accounts in the leak were identified as Icelandic. According to initial reports some of the accounts seemed to belong to well-known individuals, but Icelandic media traditionally does not discuss people‘s private lives. This did not stop rumours from circulating among people, and today Bjarni‘s wife came out publicly in an attempt to set the record straight and stop the rumours.

On her Facebook page Þóra Margrét Baldvinsdóttir, Bjarni Benediktsson‘s wife, explains that the two had been told of gossip that a “Bjarni‘s old email was found in the Ashley Madison leak.” The local news site kjarninn.is reports that the email in question is bjarniben@n1.is, which was Bjarni‘s email while he was the chairman of the board of retail and petroleum distribution company N1.

Kæru vinir. Ekki er öll vitleysan eins. Okkur hjónum hafa borist margar ábendingar um að nú sé talsvert rætt manna í... Posted by Þóra Margrét Baldvinsdóttir on Monday, August 31, 2015

Registered out of curiosity

Þóra explains that the she and her husband had heard of the website in 2008 and decided to register out of curiosity.

“We heard of this controversial website on the news seven years ago (2008). We then browsed the website out of curiosity, but to do that you had to fill out a form, register a email, a foreign zip code and several other things, which we did with complete nonchalance and without giving it much thought.”

She adds that they had never paid for membership, or entered the website on other occasions, and that they never contacted any other user on the website, and that the registration was not followed up with any contact with other members on the website, “let alone any kind of breach of trust.”

Read more: Data from the Ashley Madison leak contradicts statement by Finance Minister's wife

Things are not always what they seem on the internet

Þóra's Facebook post ends with a reminder that “Things are not always what they seem on the Internet.” Analysis by Annalee Newitz at Gizmodo has revealed that almost none of the women in the Ashley Madison Database were real or used the site.

The local news site visir.is reports that when Bjarni registered at the site he used a Florida address which belongs to his father. He chose IceHot1 as his username.