More than 40 million posts, messages, profiles, and hashed passwords compromised
Gab, the Twitter-like social networking service known for its far-right userbase, has reportedly been hacked – putting more than 40 million public and private posts, messages, as well as user profiles and hashed passwords, at risk of exposure.
The 70 GB leak of data fell into the hands of activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets (also known as DDoSecrets) – which was banned from Twitter last year after it published sensitive data stolen from US law enforcement agencies.
However, DDoSecrets says it did not exfiltrate the data itself but received it via a hacker called “JaXpArO.”
DDoSecrets claims that the compromised data – which it has dubbed “GabLeaks” – is “an important sociological resource. In 2021, it’s also a record of the culture and the exact statements surrounding not only an increase in extremist views and actions, but an attempted coup.”
Recognising the sensitive nature of the contents of private messages (some of which contains personal identifiable information) and the presence of passwords, DDoSecrets says the data is “currently only being offered to journalists and researchers.”
The first media outlet to gain access to the data was Wired, to whom DDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best described the haul as “another gold mine of research for people looking at militias, neo-Nazis, the far right, QAnon and everything surrounding January 6.”
As you would imagine, Gab is not terribly happy with the news.
In a blog post, Gab CEO Andrew Torba acknowled ..
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