Popular game streaming platform Twitch announced on a blog post on Monday night that it had discovered potential unauthorized access to some of its users account information, and that it had reset all account passwords as a security measure.
Twitch also automatically disconnected accounts linked to Twitter and YouTube and also advised its users to change passwords they had on other website which were similar to their Twitch password. The post did not contain any additional information about what exactly might have been compromised or about the severity of the issue.
This unauthorized activity to accounts is most probably the result of a hack directed towards stealing user data. Signing up to a basic account on the platform requires an email address, while users can choose to connect their account with their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube ones. However, certain more popular streamers can choose to make their channel subscription-based or can even ask for donations, case in which more sensitive data could be at risk.
Another possibility might be a leak of such information at employee level or accidental posting of user data by the company, but no such instances have been reported on the internet as of yet.
This incident could be just one in a long string of hacking incidents that hit major US companies in the last years. Sony Pictures had financial and employee private information leaked by a hack allegedly sponsored by the North Korean government last November. Apple also had its iCloud storage service hacked which led to the reveal and online circulation of hundreds of intimate celebrity photos, while December 2013 saw another hack exposing data from over 100 million credit cards from major US retailer Target.
Twitch.tv is an online livestream service specialized on video games, where users or even game developers can stream gameplay while keeping in touch with the viewers through the service’s chat system. Twitch states it has over 100 million users and has become probably the most popular gaming streaming medium, prompting Amazon to purchase it for just under $1 billion last fall.
Image Source: Xbox Wire
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