Users of Twitch should be on their guard for any kind of scam or social engineering regardless. At time of writing, no such data has materialised. The data was classed as “Part 1”, leading some to suspect a second data dump containing said payment or address data. Although no payment or address data was found to be leaked, a number of security practices were advised in any case. This alteration was taken advantage of by a third party. Data was exposed to the internet after a server configuration change. These generally direct potential victims to phishing pages hunting for Discord credentials. We often see bots in Discord channels, claiming to be from Twitch bearing free gifts. This is a bad enough thing to happen, but the waters are muddied further when you discover fake tools claiming to help you “bomb” are actually just Trojans or other forms of PUP. Twitch bombing is where bots jump into someone’s channel and entice viewers away to another stream. Though listed as “free”, often these types of site require a paid monthly subscription to view the content – only registering on the site is “free”. The program offers a variety of installs, and also opens a streaming site unrelated to Twitch. In actuality, the file is an installer manager which we detect as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program). We found an imitation Twitch site offering up a “video player plugin” required to stream the site’s content.
Being a subscriber supports specific channels and also adds functionality for the user, such as emotes. However, Twitch does have paid options in the form of subscriptions, and also Prime Gaming (often referred to as “Twitch Prime”).
You can open up the Twitch website or download the app and start watching content right away. The default Twitch experience is free to use. The proliferation of younger users makes it an appealing target for scammers. Statistics show a heavy leaning towards younger age ranges, with 41% of them in the 16-24 bracket and 32% in the 25-34 demographic. Everything from watching somebody sleep, or musical events, to walking around the streets of Japan shopping for clothes is available. In addition to gaming streams, Twitch also offers user generated content on a wide variety of themes and subjects. The primary draw of Twitch streams is video games and e-sports, leading to the rise of many big name streamers and content creators. It also offers the ability to chat with others in the Stream you happen to be in via text. Twitch is primarily a site dedicated to live streaming content.