Technologies

Discord Security Breach Exposed Government ID Photos of 70,000 Users

A third-party service provider was compromised, and information from people who had communicated with Discord’s customer support and trust and safety teams was exposed.

Hackers have stolen user information from Discord, the popular voice, video and text communication platform, through a third-party customer service provider, and government ID photos were among the information stolen. Discord posted about the breach on Oct. 3 and updated the post on Wednesday.

In the statement, Discord said that about 70,000 users may have had their government ID photos exposed. Those ID photos were shared with the third-party vendor to help review age-related appeals. You must be at least 13 to use the Discord site in the US and Canada, and other countries have different age limits. Specific age-restricted content is available only to those who are 18 and over.

«No messages or activities were accessed beyond what users may have discussed with customer support or trust & safety agents,» the statement said. «We immediately revoked the customer support provider’s access to our ticketing system and continue to investigate this matter.»

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While Discord specifically called out the number of 70,000 affected users, Yahoo News cites a report from cybersecurity research group VX-Underground stating that «the attackers claim to have exfiltrated 1.5 terabytes of data, including approximately 2,185,151 images tied to age verification appeals.»

A representative for Discord reiterated the online statement and said, «the numbers being shared are incorrect and part of an attempt to extort a payment from Discord.» They added that the company, «will not reward those responsible for their illegal actions.»

Ransom wanted

It’s becoming more common for criminals who breach websites to demand payment to keep the information they have stolen private, and Discord said this is happening here.

«An unauthorized party targeted our third-party customer support services to access user data, with a view to extort a financial ransom from Discord,» the statement said.

The statement said law enforcement is involved in the case.

What information was taken?

The Discord statement says that stolen information may include names, Discord usernames, email addresses and other contact details that people may have provided to customer support. Messages shared with customer support, including those government ID images, were also stolen.

Discord says that «limited billing information,» including the last four digits of credit card numbers, was stolen, but not full credit card numbers or CCV codes. The site also says that password and authentication data wasn’t stolen.

It seems likely that this kind of theft will only grow as more sites must comply with age verification laws in certain US states and other countries that are cracking down on verifying users’ age to use a site. Those provided government IDs may be enough for the site to grant people the right to see certain content, but once those IDs are in the site’s databases, they can be stolen.

What do I do now?

The Oct. 8 message says Discord is «in the process of contacting impacted users,» who should look for messages from noreply@discord.com, and that the site will not use the phone to reach users.

It sounds like there’s not a lot Discord users can do at the moment, except to keep an eye out for suspicious messages or calls that could use the stolen information to try to trick or phish users. Enable two-factor authentication if you don’t already have it enabled.

User reaction

Some Reddit users say Discord never responded to their age-verification appeals, even though they were then notified that their information was compromised.

«Discord ignored my ID verification ticket for 2 weeks just to tell me that the same ticket has been involved in a data breach,» wrote one Reddit user. «I’m honestly happy that I didin’t give it to them, got blocked access to half of the servers I’m in but it’s better than having my ID leaked I guess.»

Another person said something similar happened to them, too.

«Got the same email just now,» one person wrote on Reddit. «I appealed my age determination in August. Got a few emails back, but long story short the robot on the other end never accepted my ID. Nearly 2 months later, I’m told my data was leaked on the internet because Discord management doesn’t have its priorities in check.»

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know