A torrent link to a 125GB file with source code and business data of the video streaming platform Twitch has been leaked and published on the 4chan discussion board.
An unknown hacker, who premeditated the attack, permeated the streaming platform with intentions to disrupt the services and cause reputational harm.
The leaked link contains items like Git repository history, subscription rates, payments made to creators, and an unreleased game distribution service from the parent company Amazon.
We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.
We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.
— Twitch (@Twitch) October 6, 2021
Reports revealed that the hack did not include Twitch user information like login details or personal information, the target was the creator community whose pay-out details were made public.
The leak includes:
- Entirety of Twitch, with its Git commit history going all the way back to early beginnings
- Payments for the top Twitch creators
- Every property that Twitch owns, including IGDB and CurseForge
- Mobile, desktop, and video game console Twitch clients
- Proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch
- Every other property owned by Amazon Game Studios
- Twitch internal security tools
#Twitch got leaked with over 120Gbs data on 4chan. Here’s the shortened link for the original 4chan post https://t.co/vWO0P0pKdm pic.twitter.com/jVXwU8w3Rw
— inversecos ⚡️ (@inversecos) October 6, 2021
Precautionary Measures
Though there has been no evidence of user data being abused or leaked, as a preventive measure, all Twitch account users are advised to activate two-factor authentication and change their passwords with immediate effect.
In response, Twitch on its blog shared an update on the incident, “Out of an abundance of caution, we have reset all stream keys. You can get your new stream key here: https://dashboard.twitch.tv/settings/stream.”
Social media platforms and streaming platforms are a source of entertainment, communication, and income to billions of users around the globe. Any kind of disruption has huge ramifications on the service provider and the user community. The recent Facebook outage is an example of the fragility of the virtual world. Sponsored attacks, hate attacks, technical vulnerabilities, and cyber espionage, to name a few, are variables that need to be treated with precaution and a well-thought incidence response approach.
