Following a recent hack in which Twitch’s security data was massively breached earlier this week, the face of Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos has been used to deface most of the platform’s gaming channels. No one seems to be able to explain how the compromise occurred, but Twitch officials said they are investigating the incident.
Several Twitch users reported seeing the images of Bezos on channels such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dota 2, Smite, Minecraft, and Apex Legends, and others. The face of the billionaire was also seen on other directory listings, as well as on several Amazon-owned services. Twitch executives have succeeded at removing most of the defacing images, but users said they can still see it on some pages. Some users said you might miss the image unless you are consciously looking for it.
Earlier this week, hackers breached the video-gaming platform and leaked more than 125 GB of confidential data. The breach compromised Twitch’s source codes, private earnings of top content creators, and unreleased projects.
Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for $970 million and grew the streaming platform to what it is today. It is frequently used by gamers, businessmen, and even politicians. Incidentally, the platform has also faced a lot of criticisms relating to content moderation, hate, data privacy, and other harassment faced by bigger social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Thousands of creators even boycotted the platform in September for one day to ramp us support against marginalization. And a few exited the platform to use YouTube and Facebook for streaming their content.
Internet security analysts said the recent breach and resultant leaks has provided other hackers with the window to utilize Twitch shortcuts and APIs for internal Amazon services. This may have enabled attackers to fool around with the codes so that Bezos’ face could be imposed on directory listings. Analysts also said that it is possible that hackers were able to achieve their malicious objectives by exploring the platform’s cache techniques.
Twitch has not responded to media inquiries regarding the issue.
