Discord suffers data breach impacting at least 70,000 users

In Brief

Discord disclosed connected Wednesday that astir 70,000 users whitethorn person had delicate information — similar their authorities ID photos — exposed aft hackers breached a third-party vendor that the level uses for age-related appeals.

A Discord idiosyncratic would marque an “age-related appeal” if the level suspects they whitethorn beryllium underage, oregon if they unrecorded determination that requires identity verification for level access. In those cases, users are asked to send a selfie holding their authorities ID and Discord username to the platform’s Trust & Safety team.

Discord said it has contacted impacted users, whose exposed information whitethorn besides see their IP addresses, which tin uncover the wide country wherever a idiosyncratic lives.

According to the quality tract 404 Media, this information breach whitethorn beryllium larger than Discord has reported truthful far. The hackers assertion that they stole 1.5 terabytes worthy of data, which could encompass overmuch much than 70,000 images. A Discord spokesperson told The Verge that these claims are “incorrect and portion of an effort to extort a payment.”

The breach of Discord users’ information illustrates the concerns that integer rights activists person expressed implicit the usage of property checks arsenic a means of making the net “safer.”

Age verification laws, which necessitate users to upload delicate accusation similar the authorities IDs exposed successful this breach, person been enacted successful astir fractional of U.S. states, usually for websites that big pornography. Pornhub, 1 of the astir fashionable big video sites, has blocked postulation from these states altogether to debar enforcing property checks.

The U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which went into effect successful July, requires a broader scope of platforms to verify users’ ages, including YouTube, Spotify, Google, X, and Reddit.

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