Otis Mayfield
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- Sep 17, 2021
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The breach of Epik’s internal records has cast a spotlight on a long-hidden corner of the Internet’s underworld, and researchers expect it could take months before they can process the full cache — the equivalent of tens of millions of pages. Many are digging for information on who owns and administers extremist domains about which little was previously known.
Epik, based outside Seattle, said in a data-breach notice filed with Maine’s attorney general last week that 110,000 people had been affected nationwide by having their financial account and credit card numbers, passwords, and security codes exposed. An earlier data-breach letter from the company, filed to comply with Montana law, was signed by the “Epic Security Team,” misspelling the company’s name. An Epik spokesperson said it was a simple typo.
Heidi Beirich, a veteran researcher of hate and extremism, said she is used to spending weeks or months doing “the detective work” trying to decipher who is behind a single extremist domain. The Epik data set, she said, “is like somebody has just handed you all the detective work — the names, the people behind the accounts.”
Right wingers lose their anonymity.
It's like how the roaches flee when you turn the light on.
Do you think this data breach is a good thing?
Epik, based outside Seattle, said in a data-breach notice filed with Maine’s attorney general last week that 110,000 people had been affected nationwide by having their financial account and credit card numbers, passwords, and security codes exposed. An earlier data-breach letter from the company, filed to comply with Montana law, was signed by the “Epic Security Team,” misspelling the company’s name. An Epik spokesperson said it was a simple typo.
Heidi Beirich, a veteran researcher of hate and extremism, said she is used to spending weeks or months doing “the detective work” trying to decipher who is behind a single extremist domain. The Epik data set, she said, “is like somebody has just handed you all the detective work — the names, the people behind the accounts.”

Fallout begins for far-right trolls who trusted Epik to keep their identities secret
"This is like the mother of all data lodes because Epik was at the center of so many of the extremist websites and organizations."
www.boston.com
Right wingers lose their anonymity.
It's like how the roaches flee when you turn the light on.
Do you think this data breach is a good thing?