Twitch was defaced with Jeff Bezos' face for a few hours on Oct. 8. The hackers replaced the background images in several games with pictures of the former Amazon CEO.
Twitch Hackers Defaced Platform with Jeff Bezos
According to The Verge, users saw images of the billionaire in the listings for "Dota 2," "GTA V," "Smite," "Minecraft," "Apex Legends," and other games.
The Twitch users on Reddit and Twitter also reported the sighting. The officials of the Amazon-owned streaming service did not comment on the issue.
The vandalism on the platform came just days after Twitch confirmed the massive data breach, stating that an error in a server configuration change was the reason why the data was exposed on the internet.
The leaked data, which consisted of a 125GB torrent that was anonymously posted on 4chan, allegedly included the source code Twitch, the list of the creator payouts, and details about a Steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios.
Twitch stated that there is no indication that the user's login credentials were exposed. It added that the user's credit card information is all stored in separate servers, and therefore, they were not exposed.
Twitch is one of the top streaming sites as it has more than 2.5 million users that stream videos daily. It also became very popular within the gaming community because gamers use the platform to share live streams of them playing the latest video games.
Also, it gives fans a chance to talk about what is happening on-screen in real-time and pay for it through subscriptions.
The platform has since expanded to become a place where users can share their hobbies like cooking, traveling, and it even allows users to chat with each other, though gaming remains its top content.
Twitch was bought by Amazon for $970 million in 2014 as part of the e-commerce company's gaming push, according to CNET.
Payout Leak
Twitch became the latest victim of a data breach after hackers revealed how much the creators are paid for their content.
For numerous streamers, the leak just revealed the tensions within the community overpay transparency in streaming and safety on the platform.
The leaks followed a troublesome few months for Twitch, which represented 72.3% of live video game streaming viewership, remaining dominant over other gaming platforms like YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming.
After hateful bot attacks on Twitch targeted marginalized creators, some streamers organized a boycott to support the community on Sept. 1.
The boycott caused the platform's viewership to drop 1 million viewers below average. Though Twitch has added new safety features since the tension is still there.
Lucia Everblack, a transgender streamer who was one of the organizers for boycotting the platform, said that it was only a matter of time before the hack happened. She added that it has been apparent that safety and security were never at the top of the platform's priority list.
Scott Hellyer, a Twitch Partner and streamer, also said that Twitch prioritizes its top-earning streamers over the rest.
He told TechCrunch that YouTube has a better algorithm because it lets you connect to those who want to watch your content. It is something that Twitch does not have.
Hellyer added that it could be why Twitch does not want to improve discovery because they are already making money with the contents of the top streamers.
Related Article: Twitch Data Breach Leak Exposes Top 100 Streamers' Earnings-$10 Million as the Highest?
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Sophie Webster
