The leak originated on 4chan, where the user responsible for postingit noted their intention in uploading this information was to disrupt the online video streaming space, citing Twitch’s “toxic” community as a motivating factor. If you have a Twitch account, it’s probably best that you either alter your password or enable two-factor authentication to safeguard your account and your payment details. VGC reports that an “anonymous company source has stated that the leaked data is legitmate,” though at the time of writing Twitch has yet to offer a formal statement. The leak is substantial: it includes source code for the site that goes back to the very beginning of the platform’s life, as well as internal Twitch tools that the company uses to pretend to be hackers in order to test the site’s security. Clearly there were some oversights, there, though. The leak also contains a wealth of data (pun intended) about creator payouts, though it’s worth noting these are slightly out-of-date and are dated 2019. So don’t take them at face value. As per the leaker, this is just the first batch of information that’s been obtained – though details about what else has been hacked and when it’ll be released remain to be seen. VG247 can confirm that the files exist as part of a 125GB torrent, but we have not downloaded the data. This is just the latest in a long line of problems plaguing the platform – recently, we’ve seen Twitch launch new verification steps to combat hate raids and the company is looking into letting viewers pay to advertise streamer channels.
