The anonymous image council 4Chan has survived years of controversy. He resisted the boycotts of users and advertisers as well as overwhelming accusations that he has incubated hatred speeches that may have fueled mass shootings. Users gathered on 4chan to plan hacks such as DDOS attacks, and conspiracy theories that amounted to 4chan would even have inspired the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol in the United States. Monday evening and Tuesday, however, the platform was faced with its last test after a series of breakdowns led to speculation that the site was hacked.
The main characteristic provides 4CHAN is public anonymity to publish text and images, but the platform itself collects information on users, such as their IP addresses. Consequently, a website violation could represent a significant exposure of the data that were to be deprived.
“4CHAN is an anonymous babbleman who allows often offensive and hateful content. The content disclosed, if it is authentic, would delete part of the anonymity of the administrators, moderators and concierges of 4chan, “explains Ian Gray, director of analysis and research at the Flashpoint security company. The billing of the image card as a “anonymous” platform may have given users a “false feeling of security”, says Gray. “Some users may have recorded their email addresses years ago when they were less aware or concerned about their operational security.”
The reports on apparent hacking began to circulate after a previously prohibited board on 4CHANs was briefly appeared online and the site was degraded with a saying message: “You were hacked XD.” Subsequently, an online account on a rival forum known under the name of Soyjak.party published screenshots displayed 4CHAN backend systems, as well as a list of alleged 4CHAN administrator user names, with associated email addresses. Following this message from the 4CHAN administrator email addresses, Soyjak.party users began to publish alleged doxes, including photos and personal information, accounts included in the leak.
Wired has not been able to confirm whether the data is legitimate. A press email address associated with 4CHAN as well as two alleged administrative emails of the disclosed data did not immediately respond to requests for wired comments on hacking and its validity. One of the moderators of the site said they thought that hacking and leaks were real, according to a report by Techcrunch.
Rumors also started to circulate on Tuesday that the violation is the result of a 4CHAN and uncharted race software that exposed the platform to attack. After a violation a decade ago, the founder of 4chan, Christopher Poole, known online as “Moot”, wrote in a blog article, “[We] have passed – and will continue to spend – objects of hours on our software and systems to help mitigate and prevent future intrusions. We are sorry that it has happened and will do our best to make sure that it will not happen again. “”
Emiliano de Cristofaro, professor of computer science and engineering at UC Riverside, who sought the impact of 4chan on the web, says that the ramifications could be important if the hacking is confirmed.
“It seems that 4chan has not been properly maintained and corrected for years, which could indicate that a hack would certainly have been a possibility,” explains Cristofaro. “There could be“ high -level ”users exposed as moderators – in tradition, 4chan users hate them, so they could be targeted. It can be difficult or at least painfully slow and expensive for 4chan to recover, so we could really see the end of 4chan as we know. ”
