The latest face-palm-worthy revelation from the Ashley Madison hack comes courtesy of the Associated Press, which is reporting that hundreds of government employees—some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress, and law enforcement agencies—used Internet connections in their federal offices to pay membership fees for and use the dating website for cheating.

The news organization pored over a massive trove of data the hackers made available earlier this week. By tracing the IP addresses of people who visited the site over more than five years, AP reporters determined the visitors included two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator, and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department; and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a US counterterrorism response team.

According to Thursday's AP report:

Many federal customers appeared to use non-government email addresses with handles such as "sexlessmarriage," ''soontobesingle" or "latinlovers." Some Justice Department employees appeared to use pre-paid credit cards to help preserve their anonymity but connected to the service from their office computers.

"I was doing some things I shouldn't have been doing," a Justice Department investigator told the AP. Asked about the threat of blackmail, the investigator said if prompted he would reveal his actions to his family and employer to prevent it. "I've worked too hard all my life to be a victim of blackmail. That wouldn't happen," he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was deeply embarrassed and not authorized by the government to speak to reporters using his name.

The AP's analysis also found hundreds of transactions associated with Department of Defense networks, either at the Pentagon or from armed services connections elsewhere.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the Pentagon was looking into the list of people who used military email addresses. Adultery can be a criminal offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

"I'm aware it," Carter said. "Of course it's an issue because conduct is very important. And we expect good conduct on the part of our people... The services are looking into it and as well they should be. Absolutely."

The revelations underscore just how severe the fallout can be from a data dump of this magnitude and sensitivity. In the weeks to come, the public is likely to identify hundreds or thousands of other people in high places who used the site. The potential for blackmail, failed marriages, and other hardships is high. What's more, a new download started circulating Thursday that's twice as big as the previous one. It contains e-mail belonging to the CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company, as well as internal documents.

Brace yourselves. This leak is about to get even meaner.