The popular game streaming platform Twitch recently announced that it had experienced a major data breach and that a hacker had gained access to its servers. According to The Verge, Twitch admitted that a hacker gained access to data that was accidentally exposed to the internet as a result of an error in a Twitch server configuration change, which was then accessed by a malicious third party.
“As soon as more information becomes available, we will notify the community.” Thank you for your patience,” it continued.
“No indication that login credentials have been exposed,” the company said, adding that “full credit card numbers were not exposed.”
An unknown poster on the 4chan message board claimed to have leaked a 125GB torrent including the entirety of Twitch and its commit history earlier today.
According to the article, hackers have disclosed material such as source code for the company’s streaming service, an unpublished Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios, and details about creator compensation.
The leak has been tagged as part one, hinting that there may be more to come.
While personal information such as creator payments is included, passwords, addresses, and email accounts of Twitch users do not appear to be included in this initial leak.
Instead of sharing code that would include personal accounts, the leaker appears to have focused on sharing Twitch’s own company tools and information. Anytime source code is leaked, according to Sundar Balasubramanian, Managing Director, Check Point Software Technologies, India and SAARC, it’s bad and potentially disastrous.
“It opens a huge door for bad actors to exploit system flaws, lace malware, and potentially steal sensitive data.” Because cyber attacks are on the rise, I strongly advise all Twitch users to exercise caution in the near future,” Balasubramanian said. According to Candid Wuest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis, the leaked data could contain nearly Twitch’s entire digital footprint, making it one of the most serious data breaches in recent memory.
