Social video platform Twitch is latest to be hacked

Twitch is resetting all user passwords, though it is not saying how many were affected

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After so many different companies were hacked in 2014, this year seemed to be much slower on that front. Except for Uber, which has 50,000 of its drivers hacked in February, I can't think of another incident that has occurred in 2015. That is, until now, of course.

On Monday, social video platform Twitch, which was purchased by Amazon for $970 million last year, admitted in a blog post that some of its users may have had their accounts accessed.

"We are writing to let you know that there may have been unauthorized access to some Twitch user account information," the company wrote. "For your protection, we have expired passwords and stream keys and have disconnected accounts from Twitter and YouTube."

As a result, the company said, its users will also be prompted to create a new password the next time they attempt to log into their Twitch account. In addition, the company also told users that it recommend that they change their password on any other website where a similar password is used. Considering that most people use the same variation of password for almost every site, that's kind of a tall order.

Twitch says that it "will communicate directly with affected users with additional details."

Obviously there are a lot details about the breach that Twitch is so far leaving out, including how many users were affected, what information may have been accessed and how the company first became aware of any problems with user accounts. Beyond asking users to change their passwords, there is also no indication of what else, if anything, Twitch is doing to protect its users going forward.

VatorNews reached out to Twitch for more information, but the company would not comment beyond its blog post.

Twitch, which allows gamers to record live broadcasts of their video games, was spun-off from Justin.tv in 2011. Founded in 2006, Justin.tv was originally a 24/7 broadcast of the life of founder and CEO Justin Kan. Eventually it became a platform for over 60 different channels for people to broadcast their live videos.

The company officially changed its name from Justin.tv to Twitch Interactive in February of last year, and Justin.tv was shuttered in August. 

Twitch was originally though to be bought by Google before Amazon came and scooped it up. Prior to its acquisition, Twitch had raised a total of $35 million in venture capital funding, most recently a Series C $20 million investment led by Thrive Capital with participation from WestSummit Capital and Take-Two Interactive Software in October 2013. Other investors included Alsop Louie Partners and Felicis Ventures.

(Image source: twitch.tv)