Amazon's Twitch hacked, source code & financial details published
The entire Twitch source code, user comment history, and detailed financial records has reportedly been posted online by an anonymous hacker.
Twitch
Twitch is the video and gaming service owned by Amazon. Now the entirety of its source code for the service, its mobile, desktop and client apps, and an unreleased Steam competitor, have been leaked.
According to VGC, the files were leaked to 4chan by an anonymous hacker. The person said the leak was meant to "foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space [because Twitch's] community is a disgusting toxic cesspool."
VGC has confirmed that the hacker's files are publicly available on 4chan. An anonymous source within Twitch has further confirmed that the files are genuine.
According to the hacker and Twitter users who have started to examine the files, the data leaked comprises at least:
Some users are claiming that encrypted passwords are also included in the hack.
Assuming it is accurate, the leaked data has revealed the money that companies such as CriticalRole, have earned from Twitch.
The original version of Twitch launched in 2011, and was bought by Amazon in 2014. Among its client apps are a long-running iOS app, a client for the Mac, and most recently Apple TV.
Update 11:37 AM Eastern time: In a Tweet, Twitch has confirmed the breach, but has not as of yet commented on the magnitude of what it believes was stolen.
Read on AppleInsider
Twitch
Twitch is the video and gaming service owned by Amazon. Now the entirety of its source code for the service, its mobile, desktop and client apps, and an unreleased Steam competitor, have been leaked.
According to VGC, the files were leaked to 4chan by an anonymous hacker. The person said the leak was meant to "foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space [because Twitch's] community is a disgusting toxic cesspool."
VGC has confirmed that the hacker's files are publicly available on 4chan. An anonymous source within Twitch has further confirmed that the files are genuine.
According to the hacker and Twitter users who have started to examine the files, the data leaked comprises at least:
- All Twitch source code
- Comment history "going back to its early beginnings"
- Financial details including creator payouts since 2019
- Source code for Twitch apps including Apple TV
- An as-yet unreleased Steam competitor
- Internal security tools
- Proprietary SDKs, internal Amazon Web Services tools
Some users are claiming that encrypted passwords are also included in the hack.
Assuming it is accurate, the leaked data has revealed the money that companies such as CriticalRole, have earned from Twitch.
The gross payouts of the top 100 highest-paid Twitch streamers from August 2019 until October 2021: pic.twitter.com/3Lj9pb2aBl
-- KnowSomething (@KnowS0mething)
The original version of Twitch launched in 2011, and was bought by Amazon in 2014. Among its client apps are a long-running iOS app, a client for the Mac, and most recently Apple TV.
Update 11:37 AM Eastern time: In a Tweet, Twitch has confirmed the breach, but has not as of yet commented on the magnitude of what it believes was stolen.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Really going out of their way to disguise the knock off origins there. Sure sounds like a winner.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1168819167?filter=archives&sort=time&t=0h7m59s
They do it for hours at a time and people chat to them while they play. That video had over 800k viewers. Games include Battlefield, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Minecraft:
https://www.twitchmetrics.net/games/played
Sometimes they just chat like a live radio show. Money comes from subscriptions, ads, donations, sponsorships, much the same as Youtube. Big game companies sometimes pay streamers with a lot of subscribers to play games before launch as a form of marketing.
This is a new form of interactive entertainment for kids as an alternative to TV.
Ad revenue doesn't pay very much per ad like <$0.001 per ad view but when you have 800k views on a single stream and make a video every day with multiple ads shown per stream, it adds up over a couple of years. 800k x $0.001 x 4 ads x 365 days = $1.1m/year.