2CH INFO LEAK, personal info at risk

Robby

For those that don't know (really, there's people on a manga board that don't know this?) 2chan (2ちゃんねる ni channeru, 2ch for short) is a major japanese textboard, that recieves some 3 million posts a day, and is a major source for trading information and various media, and has significant influence in Japanese society.

(4chan is the deviant cousin offshoot of it, but has nothing to do with it.)

The following warning won't affect most AP forum users, and is only a thing if you actually use a japanese account and have signed into 2ch… but its a major enough thing that it merits spreading the warning around a bit, for at least a couple days.

@Aohige_AP:

Couple of hours ago, massive personal information leak happened from 2ch database.
Pretty much personal info on every paid user for 2ch's ● database got leaked, as well as posting history.
It doesn't even matter if you changed IP address, it's tied to your account. Complete breach of anonymity.

I went ahead and looked through the leak files to check, and sure enough, our personal info… including insanely sensitive info were all there.
We're changing shit right now.

I doubt anyone here in AP got affected by it other than myself, but anyone who has a ● account (which lets you bypass IP restrictions to let you post on 2ch and such) go change your credit card info RIGHT FREAKING NOW. It's out in public eye, and there are some evil people already taking advantages of it. Don't even bother downloading the leak yourself to check, if you have an account trust me it's on there. -_-; And hell, just looking through the email list, there's a LOT of non-Japanese ones, tons from US.

This may turn into the biggest leak in identity breach in Japan EVER.

Figured this deserved a bit more notice, for the next couple days at least.

valiantt

um…that really sucks? What's a .account?

MetaMario

Geez, how did this happen?

Dryish

I think you'd better post this on the manga section too. I don't know of any other 2ch user that frequents the GD section, but I have seen mentions of people whose names I don't recognize having similar accounts on the manga section where there's more talk concerning the RAW releases and such.

Most people whom this affects probably already know, but it could be wise as a precaution.

Light Bro

Excuse me but kind of personal info can be accessed now? Is it only into that's in my account or can they access mt computer somehow? Why should I have to change my credit card number? :wassat:

Dryish

@Light:

Excuse me but kind of personal info can be accessed now? Is it only into that's in my account or can they access mt computer somehow? Why should I have to change my credit card number? :wassat:

Do you have a 2chan account? This has nothing to do with AP.

Light Bro

@Dryish:

Do you have a 2chan account? This has nothing to do with AP.

Then don't scare me like that!

Dryish

… surely you can read, no? It's even in the title of the thread.

Cymelion

@Light:

Excuse me but kind of personal info can be accessed now? Is it only into that's in my account or can they access mt computer somehow? Why should I have to change my credit card number? :wassat:

I'm not sure 100% but I think people in Japan pay to use the service there a subscription that allows for greater access to overseas sites.

Enzeru

Someone's ass is so going to get busted.

Hopefully it didn't do any serious damage on your end, blue one.

No Maam

I knew it was the right thing to do to stay away 2ch and similar sites.

Hope nobody on AP gets messed up cause of it.

Luxor

I wonder where this started… a friend of mine says that ownership of 2ch's servers (some blogs say the site itself) is with a PACKET MONSTER in Singapore. But then... the servers are hosted in the US still. Whoever had access to it must've left it lying around after his coffee break.

LazySketcher

I have no idea what this is, but it sounds really serious and scary…I hope everyone will be okay in the end.

Aohige_AP

@valiantt:

um…that really sucks? What's a .account?

● accounts allow the subscriber to view old non-active archived threads of 2ch, as well as bypass most IP restrictions.
When posting from outside Japan, it comes in very handy as several boards block various IPs.

Pretty much any personal information you entered while registering, as well as credit card numbers, and history of your post through out the entire 2ch in the period of July - August is available now. I searched some of the threads I was on with the database, and fuckload of personal info was easily accessible. -_-;
I searched the July archive of the display case thread I frequent, and a quick search turned up personal data and logs of 30 people in just that one thread… I prompted the thread to take note and act asap.

Mine was registered under a friend of mine, we share the account, so I went to kick his ass up and tell him.
We've already took care of the credit card issue, the personal info is mostly outdated and the email used for registration was a throwaway, so only permanent damage for me is history logs. No biggie, I don't hide behind anonymity to say ugly shit, so not too much of embarrassment. Sure, people could probably link "that spoiler guy" now with various eroge I play, but as you all know, I'm pretty shamelessly proud of being a pervert, so damage deflected.

Enzeru

In times of crisis the blue one openly admits to playing eroge; proudly even!

I'm proud to be part of this board.

Print Error

@Enzeru:

In times of crisis the blue one openly admits to playing eroge; proudly even!

I'm proud to be part of this board.

I thought he did that even not in times in crisis?

Kudos to everyone for getting the warning out so fast, by the way.

Aohige_AP

The English comparison would be:

Imagine every post you made on 4chan or reddit within a month period were now openly available, tied to your real name, address, phone number, email, and card info.
Any trolling you have done or terrible things you said anonymously on those boards are now tied to your real life identity.

Yeah.

That's pretty much what's happening. :blink:

Enzeru

Ooh imagine that happening to /a/.

Luxor

Or even worse :ninja: /b/.

Light Bro

@Dryish:

… surely you can read, no? It's even in the title of the thread.

I thought 2CH was some kind of code talk…

Supernova122

@Light:

I thought 2CH was some kind of code talk…

You should read the first post before asking a question that is … um, answered in the first post.

Aohige_AP

Official apology message from Jim Watkins, the head of N.T.Technology that runs the 2ch server on US side
The information was, indeed, as the earlier rumors suggested a breach by outside sources.
Looks like 2ch servers will go down early September to implement security measures.

Not sure if it's related, but 2ch founder and CEO Hiroyuki's twitter just got hacked and overrun as well.
Seems like an organized cyber attack on 2ch to me.

My compromised ● account isn't working anymore, but I think the whole system isn't online right now.
To compensate they cleared all IP restrictions on 2ch so anyone can post.

EDIT: Meh. Nevermind, non *.jp restriction is still in effect on most of the boards including manga boards.
I have to use VPN to post now -_-;

Purple Hermit

@Supernova122:

You should read the first post before asking a question that is … um, answered in the first post.

To be fair, I think Robby editted that in after/because Light Bro didn't understand what 2ch is

square

@Luxor:

Or even worse :ninja: /b/.

Yeah especially since child porn gets posted on there occasionally.

Monkey King

@square:

Yeah especially since child porn gets posted on there occasionally.

So then it would be a good thing for those people to be busted, yes.

Smudger

Any suggestions as to who would have it out for them? You usually have these sort of groups brag or post something afterwards.

Maybe it's down to the illegal stuff that was mentioned above. I can't really say for myself though as I've never visited that site other than a spoiler link I think.

I hope the people that have clean hands in this aren't effected. I guess the next week will reveal just how big this event will progress.

Aohige_AP

Someone's getting offshot conversation confused with the source incident I see.

Smudger

@Aohige_AP:

Someone's getting offshot conversation confused with the source incident I see.

aimed at me ?

Luxor

^ Here's my guess: I think he means that when he mentioned a possible connection to the CEO's twitter getting hacked, you assumed there WAS a direct link.