Twitch, a game-streaming platform, has been hacked, exposing private business information as well as streamers’ profits.
On Wednesday, more than 100GB of data was uploaded to the internet.
According to the records, Twitch’s top streamers have each made millions of dollars from the Amazon-owned firm over the last two years.
Twitch acknowledged the breach and stated that it was “working urgently” to determine the scope of the problem.
The business stated it will “update the community as soon as further information is available” in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The earnings list got my amount 100 percent accurate,” Fortnite streamer BBG Calc told BBC News.
High-earners
Payments appear to have been made between August or September 2019 and October 2021, according to documents discussed in internet forums.
According to some online versions, well-known streamers such as the critical role of the Dungeons & Dragons channel, Canadian xQC, and American Summit1g are among the top earners.
Twitch is known for keeping operational information like how much its streamers are paid under wraps, so this appears to be a major embarrassment for the corporation.
It also comes at a time when competitors like YouTube Gaming are paying top dollar for gaming expertise, so the ramifications may be considerable.
Aside from compensation information, the papers appear to contain the site’s source code as well as technical data for goods and platforms that have yet to be published.
And the evidence is accumulating that at least part of the data is accurate.
According to security experts, the files contain internal server data that can only be viewed by Twitch personnel.
If all is verified, it will be the
However, the list of payments, which appears to be from Twitch, is unlikely to include sponsorship partnerships and other off-platform activity – or account for income tax.
And because many, if not all, of these top streamers, are functionally large-scale media organizations with their own staff and business expenditures, the figures do not represent “take-home money” for individuals mentioned, even if they are true.
According to reports, the docs also contain a wealth of internal Twitch data.
Metadata appearing on online forums purports to indicate data folders named after major program areas, such as:
“core configuration packages” is an abbreviation for “core configuration packages.”
“devtools” is an acronym for “development tools” (developer tools)
“information security” is a term used to describe the protection of information (information security)
The docs also contain “part one” source code for Twitch’s website and related services, implying that there is more undisclosed material.
An anonymous blogger called the Twitch community “a horrible toxic quagmire” in the first known internet post linked to the data, and said the hack was being disseminated “to create greater disruption and competition” in video broadcasting.
Twitch has been dealing with a variety of concerns on its site in recent months, including “hate raids,” which are organized harassment of streamers from minority backgrounds.
