Twitch says it may have been hacked and is now requiring its millions of members to change their passwords upon their next login.
Amazon's game streaming network reports user passwords may have been captured in clear text by malicious code on March 3. In a blog post, Twitch says it has expired all passwords and stream keys and has unlinked all user accounts linked to YouTube and Twitter, prompting users to change their passwords the next time they log in. Twitch also recommends that users change their passwords at other websites where they use the same or similar password.
"We are writing to let you know that there may have been unauthorized access to some Twitch user account information," says Twitch.
Twitch has also sent out individual emails to users it thinks might have been affected. In the email, Twitch says hackers may have pilfered off users' Twitch username, email address, and the IP address of the last device that the user used to log in most recently. The company also says the last four digits of users' credit cards and the cards' expiration date, as well as users' first and last name, phone number, home address, and birthday, may have been stolen.
"PLEASE NOTE: Twitch does not store or process full credit or debit card information, so your card number is safe," Twitch says in the email.
Details of how the potential hack was discovered have not been disclosed. Twitch has also declined to comment on how many users were affected or what kind of personal information was actually accessed.
More than one million Twitch users stream their games live over the network for other people to view. Around 100 million people from all over the world watch these livestreams, according to Twitch's 2014 annual report released in January.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitch is the fourth biggest website in the world in terms of peak Internet traffic, ranking behind only Netflix, Google, and Apple. If a breach had indeed occurred, the negative impact of such a breach could potentially affect a huge number of people.
Last week, Twitch went dark for several hours, but a company spokesperson tells VentureBeat that the shutdown was not related to a hack and was purely an "internal tech issue."
Twitch is an Amazon-owned platform that allows gamers to stream their games live over the Internet. Last year, Amazon surprised the gaming community when it announced a $970 million acquisition of Twitch.
