Twitch – the video streaming platform favoured by many gamers and content providers has been in the mainstream and tech news since yesterday because they had a cybersecurity leak!
(The image at the head of the page was snipped from Twitch’s web site about 20 minutes ago!)
It appears that much of the company’s sensitive information has been stolen and made available for people to download – embarrassing for the company and some it’s highest paid content makers, but it could also damage the business as future plans, sensitive documentation, website and application code and even internal security testing has been made public.
No one yet seems to have mentioned usernames and passwords but if you have a Twitch account change the password.
Twitch confirms massive data breach – BBC News
My earnings leaked online… – YouTube
Today’s Top Tip – which is something you may here me repeat “quite often” is this:
You need a different password for each “thing” you log into
What does this mean?
Imagine you use the same email and password at Twitch and at your bank. The hackers have access to your Twitch account and you can bet they will try all the banking websites just to see if you use the same password there. If you think this takes a long time for the lone hacker sitting in his/her bedroom to do – forget that. This information is public knowledge now – and there are computers and computer programs set up ready to ingest this type of hacked information and at the speed of the fastest computers you can think of go out and test whether you have reused a compromised password.
Martin, the Operations Manager at Octagon has written an article today looking at password security – click over there now to read it.
YOUR CREDENTIALS – are they safe? – Octagon Technology
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
