An anonymous hacker claims to have leaked the entirety of Twitch, including its source code and user payment information.
The user posted a 125GB torrent link to 4chan on Wednesday, stating that the leak was intended to "encourage more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space" because "their community is a disgusting toxic cesspool."
VGC can verify that the files mentioned on 4chan are publicly available for download as described by the anonymous hacker.
An anonymous source from the company told VGC that the leaked data is legitimate, including the source code for the streaming platform owned by Amazon.
Internally, Twitch is aware of the breach, the source said, and the data is believed to have been obtained as recently as Monday. We have requested a comment from Twitch and will update this story when you respond.
The leaked Twitch data reportedly includes:
- The entirety of Twitch's source code with comment history "dating back to its inception"
- 2019 Creator Pay Reports
- Mobile, desktop and console Twitch clients
- Proprietary SDKs and internal AWS services used by Twitch
- "All other properties owned by Twitch" including IGDB and CurseForge
- An unprecedented Steam competitor, codenamed Vapor, of Amazon Game Studios
- Twitch's internal 'red teaming' tools (designed to improve security by having staff pretend to be hackers)
Some Twitter users have started to make their way through the 125GB of information that has been leaked, with one claiming that the torrent also includes encrypted passwords and recommends that users enable two-factor authentication to be safe.
If you have a Twitch account, it is recommended that you also turn on two-factor authentication, ensuring that even if your password is compromised, you still need your phone to prove your identity using SMS or an authentication app.
To activate two-factor identification:
- login to Twitch, click on your avatar and choose Settings
- go to Security and privacy, then scroll down to Security settings
- choose Edit Two-Factor Authentication to see if it's already enabled. Otherwise follow the instructions to turn it on (you will need your phone)
The torrent also reportedly includes Unity's code for a game called Vapeworld, which appears to be chat software based on Amazon's unreleased Steam competitor Vapor.
Meanwhile, Vapor, the codename of a supposed Steam competitor in development, is claimed to integrate many of Twitch's features into a bespoke game store.
Finally, the leaked documents allegedly show that Popular streamers like Shroud, Nickmercs and DrLupo have made millions of working with the popular streaming platform.
What it doesn't include is money streamers have earned outside of Twitter, including products, YouTube revenue, endorsements, and outside donations.
Despite this warning, the list shows that 81 Twitch streamers have received more than $ 1 million from Twitch since August 2019.
The anonymous leaker has stated that this is only the first part of the content that will be leaked, but has not stated what they plan to post as well.
Twitch has been regularly criticized by creators and users who feel the site is not taking enough action against troublesome members of the Twitch community.
Last month, a group of Twitch streamers called other channels and viewers. boycott the site for 24 hours in response to incursions of hatred.
On the same day the campaign was initially announced, Twitch posted a thread on Twitter explaining that he was trying to stop the incursions of hate, but that it was not "a simple solution".
"No one should have to experience malicious and hateful attacks based on who they are or what they represent," he said. โThis is not the community we want on Twitch, and we want you to know that we are working hard to make Twitch a safer place for creators.
Hate spam attacks are the result of highly motivated bad actors and do not have a simple solution. Your reports have helped us take action - we've continually updated our site-wide banned word filters to help prevent variations in hate speech and eliminate bots when identified.
โWe have been developing channel-level ban evasion detection and account enhancements to combat this malicious behavior for months. However, as we work on solutions, the bad actors work in parallel to find ways around them, so we can't always share the details. "
