Though they were meant to be temporary and deleted upon verification, over 1.5TB of Discord verification images (selfies) have been swiped by hackers, totaling more than two million user photos.
According to Insider Gaming, 2,185,151 age-verification images, i.e., selfies, alongside other private user information, have been stolen by hackers during a September intrusion into Discord’s network. Discord Previews has said that the hackers’ motive was to “extort” the company, and that the stolen data is being actively used for this purpose.
The hack itself was first disclosed on Oct. 3, where Discord did not specify the exact number of images or the size of the data stolen, but only said it was a “small number” of government IDs. From what the company released that day, it appeared the hack wasn’t that serious, and that it acted in a timely manner to kick the hackers out of its network, specifically by revoking the support’s access to Discord tickets. The hack appears to have targeted those who had interacted with Discord support in particular, which could explain the age verification images.
However, as Insider Gaming points out, these images, used by Discord to confirm a user’s age in certain jurisdictions where the law requires it (the United Kingdom being the most recent example) are supposed to be temporary, meaning they’d be deleted once the age verification process is complete.
But, as we see above, millions of those images reportedly remained within Discord’s systems, allowing the hackers to steal them during the attack.
The company did not clarify how or why these images were retained in its systems, despite its own claims that they are temporary. This also raises concerns of privacy, since the laws requiring social media platforms to verify a user’s age are supposed to protect them, rather than leaving them vulnerable and anonymized.
Internet anonymity is a crucial component of the technology, and hacks like these prove how vulnerable users can be if that is taken away, despite promises to the contrary. Though credit card information, passwords, and messages were not affected by this, the hackers now have the means to fully disclose people’s names and information if they see fit, exposing them to the broader internet and likely permanently revoking their anonymity.
It’s a slippery slope, this sort of measure. It remains to be seen how this will ultimately affect Discord’s users and platform as a whole, and I fear this won’t be the last time we see these sorts of images, photos, and information leaks.
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The post 1.5TB of those ‘temporary’ photos you used to verify your Discord age are now in the hands of hackers appeared first on Destructoid.
