The infamous Internet Forum 4chan was hacked on Tuesday.
At the time of writing, the 4chan website had not been loaded. Social media users reported that the site was down for several hours intermittently.
The message on the rival message board seen by TechCrunch praised Hack. One claimed that the hackers responsible for the violation were in the 4chan system “for more than a year.”
Several screenshots showing what appears to be the backend of 4chan are distributed online and show suspected templates to ban the site's backend, source code, and users. Also, the leaked data includes a list of posted 4chan moderators and “admins”, which allow you to delete posts and threads, but have fewer privileges than moderators, allowing you to see the user's IP address, for example.
Given the known violent political ties of 4chan, this cyberattack could potentially expose those who run these forums, which has become the heart of the alt-right movement.
TechCrunch reached out to several leaked email addresses and spoke to one of the people behind one of the email addresses. One of the 4Chan admins who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity said they were “confident” that the leaked data and screenshots were “all real.”
“If not, there's no reason to believe it,” the admin said.
“I've gotten a bit back. The 4chan moderation team has had leaks in the past, but this is clearly a big size issue,” the admin told TechCrunch. “I'm not happy with the situation. I'm sure most others aren't. But many of us have been doing this for a long time. Doxxing has been a long-standing entertainment for 4chan, and the chances we're exposed to have always been there.”
“For obvious reasons, I am most interested in leaked information,” the admin said. “I think the fact that 4chan was effectively carried over to the hackers is probably “worse” than screenshots, at least in terms of the continuous operation of the site. ”
The admin also said that the hackers appear to have obtained personal information from 4Chan Pass subscribers, a user who pays for the site to bypass the post counter and access the VIP board, according to the janitor.
4chan did not respond to emails requesting comment sent to the site's press email address.
4chan is an ostensibly anonymous internet forum that functions like the dark underbelly of the web. Most of the time, it's an image board that appears to be inhabited by boring users who frequently try to shock them by posting some of the sleazy content imaginable. 4chan's cultural exports have also permeated the real world as harmless memes or as hateful rhetoric that inspires right-wing terrorism.
Memes such as Pepe the Frog, Rage Comics, and Warjak were originally popular on 4chan, but have become ubiquitous throughout the Internet. However, 4chan's most powerful legacy comes from the political committee. There, Alt-Right's rhetoric can radicalize young users and adopt the ideals of white supremacist. Canon, a group of far-right conspiracy theorists who supported President Donald Trump, came from 4chan.
The archer who killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 has been a regular 4chan user since he was a teenager. In 2022, an 18-year-old man killed 10 black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. His 180-page manifesto borrowed from the online rhetoric of the archer in Christchurch.