Twitch Breach: Anonymous hacker claims to have leaked data
Amazon’s live streaming platform Twitch said Wednesday it was hit by a data breach, without providing further details.
An anonymous hacker claimed to have leaked Twitch data, including information related to the company’s source code, customers and unreleased games, according to Video Games Chronicle, which first reported the news of the hack.
Twitch confirmed the breach and said its “teams are working urgently to understand the scope.”
We can confirm that a breach has occurred. Our teams are working urgently to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information becomes available. Thank you for supporting us.
—Twitch (@Twitch) October 6, 2021
The company declined to comment further and said it would “update the community as soon as additional information becomes available.” Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The hacker’s motive was to “foster further disruption and competition in the online video streaming space”, according to the Video Games Chronicle report.
About 125GB of data was leaked, including information on Twitch’s highest-paid video game streamers since 2019, such as a $9.6 million (roughly Rs. 70 crore) payout to voice actors from the popular game “Dungeons & Dragons” and $8.4 million (about Rs. 70 crore 62 crore) to Canadian streamer xQcOW, according to the report.
“The Twitch leak is real. Includes a significant amount of personal data,” cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont tweeted.
The Twitch leak is real. Includes a significant amount of personal data.
Feel bad for the InfoSec team, the attacker also leaked a lot of his data, including his threat models (which he probably wants to update to include 4chan).
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) October 6, 2021
Twitch, an online esports platform with over 30 million average daily visitors, has become increasingly popular with musicians and video gamers where they interact with users while streaming live content.
The platform, which was boycotted earlier this year by users for not doing enough to block harassment, had previously taken the decision to ban users for offenses such as membership in a hate group and credible threats of mass violence.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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