In the recent news, the Amazon-owned gaming platform, Twitch has undergone a massive data breach that experts have described as a “highly targeted attack”. On Wednesday, the company confirmed it suffered a breach, and said its teams were working to realize its magnitude.
The Massive Data Breach Also Exposed the Source Code of Twitch
Moreover, the massive data breach has revealed a huge trove of sensitive information, including Twitch’s complete source code and several years of payout data on the service’s most famous streamers, according to the video game news platform.
This magnitude of hack would “send a shudder down any hardened infosec professional”, stated Archie Agarwal, founder, and CEO at New Jersey cybersecurity firm ThreatModeler. “This is as bad as it could be,” he said. “How on earth did someone exfiltrate 125GB of the most sensitive information imaginable without tripping a single alarm?”
Furthermore, the hacker posted the leak to the online forum 4chan and said they carried out the hacking to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space”, according to Video Games Chronicle.
The Hackers Directly Targeted Twitch
Although it appears the massive data breach directly targeted Twitch rather than its users, the breach will almost surely have cleaned up user information. Users of Amazon-owned Twitch will now have to take precautions, including changing their account credentials and making sure they don’t apply the same combination of credentials to use other online services, the experts said.
Read more: WhatsApp Fined €225M by European Union over Severe Privacy Breach
In addition to this, Hank Schless of the San Francisco security firm Lookout stated that in many larger breaches, hackers use phishing operations to obtain employee credentials and obtain access to sensitive information. He stressed the massive nature of the breach. “It’s not just one service or data type that was leaked,” said Schless. “It spans almost every aspect of the Twitch platform, including incredibly private proprietary data.”
Amazon-owned Twitch Has More Than 51 Million Users
The hack could have significant associations with the popularity of Twitch, which has more than 51 million users. Its top users have raked in millions of followers, and the massive data breach has now shown just how much they’ve made from it.
As per the advertising analysts at N Rich, online queries for “how to delete Twitch” exploded 733% around the world on 6 October. “With such a concerning data breach from a platform as widespread and global as Amazon-owned Twitch, users are naturally wanting to protect themselves and their data as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for N Rich reflected on the findings. “Users will be expecting stringent action and protective measures in the future.”
Source: WSJ
