Official ID Pictures of Tens of Thousands of Accounts May Have Been Leaked, the Platform Reports
Discord, the messaging platform widely used by video game players, reports that verified identity pictures of about 70,000 users have potentially been leaked following a online intrusion.
External Provider Compromised
The platform, which maintains over 200 million users worldwide, reports that cybercriminals had targeted a firm that was responsible for authenticating the age verification of its account holders but the Discord platform itself was not directly affected.
Members can submit identification images to verify their age on Discord - a social space for gamers to communicate and share files with others in the video game ecosystem.
Range of Compromised Data
The exposed information could include personal information, partial credit card details and correspondence that were shared with the platform's support representatives.
Complete payment card information was not, login credentials, or correspondence and platform usage beyond conversations with Discord's customer support agents were exposed, the firm said.
Response Measures
Each compromised user have been alerted and Discord is coordinating with police agencies to probe the situation, it stated further.
The company said it has terminated the external company's permissions for the infrastructure that was targeted in the breach. Discord chose not to specify the partner organization compromised.
Contradictory Statements
Some internet observers have claimed that the security incident was larger than Discord has revealed.
A representative for Discord declared that those claims are inaccurate and "represent a scheme to demand money" from the company.
"We will not reward those responsible for their criminal activities," the company official added.
Value of Personal Data
Online intruders regularly seek individual details, which can command a high price on the black market for use in scams.
Details including complete identities and government identification codes is especially valuable because, different from payment information, it generally stays constant through the years.
Past Verification Initiatives
Discord has in the past reinforced its age confirmation procedures in reaction to worries that particular communities on the service were being used to distribute pornographic and extremist material.
- Around 70,000 users impacted
- Third-party age verification firm targeted
- Fragmentary financial data could be compromised
- Help desk correspondence may have been viewed
- Authorities engaged in probe
