"Swatting" and the Underworld of Twitch

            “Swatting” is becoming a dangerous problem in the streaming community. The term “swatting” is where malicious users, through use of an IP address of a target, can call a SWAT team to infiltrate the target mid-stream. Although “swatting” didn’t start on Twitch (many celebrities in the past such as Ashton Kutcher, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna), the phenomenon is definitely more prevalent on the site due to increased Internet speeds and user accessibility.

            The attacks usually originate from “internet trolls” or malicious users on Twitch. The process of obtaining IP, usually through the user’s Skype account, has been made even easier with the use of “Skype resolvers” where anyone can input a Skype username and find their IP address. The attacks usually start with a DDoS attack, or “Distributed Denial of Service.” This attack is one of the easiest to accomplish and only requires the IP address of the target and a moderate level of technical ability. Once the attacker finds the desired IP address, they then swamp the target’s network with traffic, effectively shutting down the network.

            One example involved a woman named Janet and her attacker under the fitting alias “Obnoxious.” Jane spent much of her time on Twitch, and as a female she was subject to more hostility than men. Obnoxious, like many other attackers, was a depressed kid with a troubled past who wanted to just cause trouble for no reason. He started out with simply messaging women, looking for a friend. If they didn’t respond he would escalate his attacks, from ordering unappetizing pizzas to targets’ homes to sending massive “text bombs” to eventually threatening to dispatch a SWAT team to either their or their parents’ homes. Here is a sample of what Obnoxious would message targets:

            Obnoxious threatened to post her “dox” publicly, which allows anyone visiting sites like doxbin to find and sell people’s dox documents. A “dox” is a document of your private information posted online for anyone to see and exploit. Doxing makes you vulnerable to all sorts of mischief, from phone harassment to even credit-­card fraud. Obnoxious was able to obtain this sort of information for dozens of women. He mainly did it by ­calling Internet companies and tricking customer-­service representatives over the phone. He would use one small piece of public information, like a birthday or a favorite pet, to get yet another from one company, and then he would use the new piece to get more information from a different company.

Some of his victims took long breaks from doing what they love due to fear of further harassment. ‘‘I just wanted to be alone,’’ says Alexa Walk, who was swatted by Obnoxious at her apartment in North Carolina. ‘‘I didn’t want people to see me upset.’’  Obnoxious, like many other attackers, used different aliases at the same time to flood chats with threats of DDoS attacks and dumping dox files publicly.

As the Internet grows and video game streaming and esports become even more prevalent, so does the risk of “swatting.” Even though no one can truly be “safe” from malicious users like Obnoxious, it’s important to know the danger of what these attackers can do. Eventually the Canadian police arrested the suspect, charging him with 46 counts, including criminal harassment, public mischief and extortion. With the help of the police and strong willed users, perhaps one day the Internet will be free of these malicious attackers once and for all.