After a 4chan member, whose real name is unknown, posted confidential information on Wednesday, Amazon-owned streaming site Twitch faced a significant data breach.
Streamer compensation information and totals, source code for Twitch clients, Twitch security tools, and an “unreleased Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios” are among the items included in the 125 GB torrent package, according to The Verge.
The leak was first reported this morning by Video Games Chronicle, and The Verge has subsequently confirmed the breach.
Twitch confirmed the data leak via today morning’s tweet.
The hacker labeled the entire leakage as “part one,” implying that they have more information than previously been provided.
Three years of creator payout data were made public, including gross revenue for the site’s top streamers.
Twitch: Who Is 4chan And What Is Their Real Name?
4chan, whose members’ names are not revealed, is a collection of entirely anonymous, anything-goes message boards.
4chan is not unlike Reddit, Something Awful, or other large-scale Internet forums in style and essential operation.
However, 4chan is infamous for keeping information about who moderates it — and how much — under wraps.
The team appears to value secrecy as a core value. In the FAQ, the site adds that “there is no way for an end-user to precisely estimate the level of moderating going place at any particular point in time.”
It received a lot of attention recently, but not all of it has been positive. The site was first blamed for exposing dozens of stolen nude images of female celebrities.
Later, it created an incomprehensible and comical “mascot” for Ebola and encouraged naive new iPhone owners to microwave their devices.
Have The 4chan Members Revealed Their Faces?
Only the founder of the 4chan, Christopher Poole, has revealed his face; other members are yet to step out.
The founder has cautioned users to take the survey with “a grain of salt,” noting that it’s impossible to know who uses it with confidence because the site is anonymous.
It’s impossible to estimate 4chan’s motivations, mainly because no one knows who uses the site and in what numbers.
However, based on many hours spent on the site, the people who propagate hoaxes are typically in it for the lark — or, to put it another way, for the physical pleasure of laughing at someone else’s foolishness or cost.