- Kyle Chua
Twitch Source Code, Streamer Payouts Leaked in Massive Data Breach
Amazon’s popular game-streaming platform Twitch said on Wednesday, 6 October, that it was hit by a massive data breach, where its source code and streamer payouts, among other confidential company information, were taken and leaked online.
"We can confirm a breach has taken place," Twitch posted on Twitter. "Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this."
The San Francisco-based company confirmed the breach after reports surfaced of an anonymous user on imageboard site 4Chan uploaded a 125GB torrent file, which they said contains the entirety of Twitch. The poster added that the leak is designed to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space,” as first reported by The Video Game Chronicle.
Among the information included in the leak are streamer payouts dating back up to three years, the entirety of twitch.tv, the source code for the Twitch client on all major platforms, code of proprietary SDKs and AWS services, internal security tools, data on other Twitch properties, as well as an unreleased digital game distribution service from Amazon Game Studios.
The leaker reportedly also stated that this is just the first part of the leak, though what else they have obtained from the data breach is still unclear. From what we know now, the leak doesn’t appear to include the password or address information of Twitch users. However, with Twitch still investigating the extent of the breach, there’s no hard confirmation on what information has or hasn’t been obtained by the anonymous leaker.
Google searches for "how to delete Twitch" increased 733% around the world when news of the leak started to spread, according to marketing analysts firm N. Rich.
"With such a concerning data breach from a platform as widespread and global as Twitch, users are naturally wanting to protect themselves and their data as soon as possible," an N.Rich spokesperson said.
Last month, Twitch users staged a virtual walkout to voice outrage on the company’s inability to contain cases of racism, sexism, and homophobic abuse that has become so prevalent on the platform.
The Twitter hashtag #DoBetterTwitch became a movement among female, non-white and LGBTQ streamers, who felt that the company were allowing internet trolls to have their way. The hashtag was also used by the anonymous leaker to promote the data breach online.
Twitch on several occasions maintained that it is working to improve tools for protecting accounts from abuses.
If you still plan to use Twitch in the coming days, we suggest enabling two-factor authentication for your account, if you haven’t already, to maximize your security on the platform.
Written by Kyle Chua
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