This morning, an anonymous hacker released what they claim is an enormous cache of proprietary data from Twitch, the popular streaming platform, including Twitch.tv source code and streamers’ revenue information.
“Jeff Bezos paid $970 million for this, we’re giving it away FOR FREE,” wrote the poster on 4chan. Today’s leak, which its original poster described as “extremely poggers,” is by far the biggest to ever hit Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon in 2014.
The leak, first reported by Video Games Chronicle, reportedly contains 125 GB of data. That data includes the source code for Twitch.tv; Twitch’s mobile, desktop, and game console clients; proprietary SDKs; Twitch-owned properties including Vapor, Amazon’s alleged Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios; and internal security tools. The leak does not appear to contain streamers’ or users’ personal information, but the damage appears extensive. The post is titled “twitch leaks part one,” implying that there may be more to come.
“Anytime source code gets leaked it’s not good and potentially disastrous,” says Ekram Ahmed, spokesperson at security firm Check Point. “It opens a gigantic door for evildoers to find cracks in the system, lace malware, and potentially steal sensitive information.”
The 4chan poster also referenced Twitch’s recent wave of hate raids, in which botmakers have been spamming marginalized streamers’ chats with bigoted harassment. Mentioning the #DoBetterTwitch hashtag (more commonly #TwitchDoBetter), the poster claimed that Twitch is a “disgusting cesspool.” They wrote that the leak, which appears to contain huge amounts of proprietary data, is to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video game streaming space.” Twitch has introduced several new tools to combat these hate raids, and sued two alleged hate raiders last month.
