Far-Right Platform Gab Hit With a Massive Hack

Data belonging to Alex Jones, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell may be included

Sarah Emerson
OneZero

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Alex Jones and his phone. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A hacker targeted far-right social network Gab and stole more than 70 gigabytes of user data, including 40 million posts and private messages, Wired reported on Sunday.

Gab CEO Andrew Torba acknowledged the hack on Sunday, claiming the platform was attacked by “demon hackers” and referred to these individuals using a transphobic slur, The Verge noted.

The hacker identifies as “JaXpArO and My Little Anonymous Revival Project” and “siphoned that data out of Gab’s backend databases in an effort to expose the platform’s largely right-wing users,” according to Wired. The data was reportedly retrieved through an SQL injection vulnerability, allowing the hacker to interfere with Gab’s backend database.

Included in the dataset are more than 70,000 messages and more than 19,000 chats by roughly 15,000 users. Some of this content includes items posted to private profiles and groups. Also included are user and group passwords. (The passwords were reportedly cryptographically hashed, Wired noted, meaning they had been scrambled into a different, unreadable string.)

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Sarah Emerson
OneZero

Staff writer at OneZero covering social platforms, internet communities, and the spread of misinformation online. Previously: VICE