Perhaps spurred on by the very hackers, The Impact Crew, who hacked  AshleyMadison.com, the website owned by Avid Life Media and designed for marital philanderers to find others looking for extramarital affairs, Canadian AshleyMadison.com subscribers took to the legal courts on Friday.

The hacking group initially withheld release of the trove of data (which includes some 15,000 government web addresses), instead requesting the site to shutter operations or face release of the information. When their demand went unmet, they began the release of the embarrassing and damaging subscriber data.

That release was accompanied by this statement: “It was [Avid Life Media] that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it.”

Canadian lawyers lost little time in doing just that. Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP – two Canadian law firms – filed a $578 million class-action suit Thursday against Toronto-based Avid Dating Life and Avid Life Media. The suit was filed on behalf of Canadians whose personal data was compromised during the breach, The Associated Press reported.

Ted Charney, of Charney Lawyers stated that the Canadian Ashley Madison customers, “are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users’ information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed.”

The massive hacking has raised questions about security and what some experts refer to as a cavalier attitude they accuse some websites of exhibiting regarding subscriber data.  Beyond just email addresses (some of which have proven to be faked), the exposure includes credit card data, personal security questions and other sensitive subscriber information.

“The sensitivity of the information is so extreme and the repercussions of this breach are so extreme, it puts the damages faced by members in a completely different category of class-action suits,” lawyer Ted Charney told The Associated Press.

Experts predict similar suits from other individuals and groups.

Some find the suits a perverse response for cheaters saying their spouses are actually the victims and that the cheaters should have known better than to risk their marriages or their personal data.