Twitch leak: Email addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers were not compromised, company resets all stream keys

The massive data breach that Twitch suffered has reportedly exposed the earnings of popular streamers and the streaming platform’s source code. On the bright side, though, the Amazon-owned company has told users that sensitive information like login credentials and credit card numbers were not compromised in the leak.

In most data breaches, platform users are the most vulnerable. These incidents often target user data, including passwords and email addresses. On some occasions, hackers also try to sell collected personal information, such as full names, locations, and birth dates. But if there was one good thing about the recent Twitch leak, there is no indication that these kinds of information were compromised.

Twitch provided an update on the situation on late Wednesday to confirm that it has not found evidence to suggest that login credentials were leaked. But the company says it is continuing to investigate. “Additionally, full credit card numbers are not stored by Twitch, so full credit card numbers were not exposed,” Twitch said.

To make sure that Twitch accounts are safe, users are still encouraged to update their login credentials. They can change their passwords through the Security and Privacy menu in the account settings on the Twitch website or mobile app.

For added security, users can also enable two-factor authentication. This will require an active mobile phone number where Twitch will send a code that will be required as part of the login process, along with the correct email address and password.

In Twitch’s latest update on Thursday, the company said it decided to refresh all stream keys “out of an abundance of caution.” Users can get their new keys through this link. “Depending on which broadcast software you use, you may need to manually update your software with this new key to start your next stream,” Twitch added.

People using Twitch Studio, Twitch app, Streamlabs, Xbox, and PlayStation do not have to take extra steps to use their new stream keys. The same goes for OBS users who have already linked their Twitch account to the platform, but if they have not done that yet they have to copy the new key from their Twitch dashboard and paste it into OBS.

Photo by Gage Skidmore from Flickr under Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.0