Hackers stole partial payment information and personally identifying data associated with some Discord users after compromising a third-party customer service provider.
The attack occurred on September 20 and affected “a limited number of users” who interacted with Discord’s customer support and/or Trust and Safety teams.
Discord was created as a communication platform for gamers, who represent more than 90% of the userbase, but expanded to various other communities, allowing text messages, voice chats, and video calls.
According to the platform’s statistics, more than 200 million people are using Discord every month.
Hackers demanded a ransom
In the notification to affected users, the messaging company says that the attack occurred on September 20 and “an unauthorized party gained limited access to a third-party customer service system used by Discord.”
On Friday, Discord disclosed the incident publicly, saying that it took immediate action to isolate the support provider from its ticketing system and started an investigation.
This included revoking the customer support provider’s access to our ticketing system, launching an internal investigation, engaging a leading computer forensics firm to support our investigation and remediation efforts, and engaging law enforcement - Discord
The attack appears to be financially motivated, as the hackers demanded a ransom from Discord in exchange for not leaking the stolen information.
Exposed data includes personally identifying information such as real names and usernames, email addresses, and other contact details provided to the support team.
... continue reading