Epik, web host to Nazis and MAGA cultists, got itself hacked

Hackers claiming affiliation with Anonymous announced they have obtained around “a decade’s worth of data” totaling 180GB from Epik, the infamous web registration company that counts among its clients such malignant internet tumors as the alt-social media platforms Gab and Parler, as well as the sad bastards over at The Donald.

First revealed by journalist Steven Monacelli on Monday afternoon, the trove of information purportedly includes “all that’s needed to trace actual ownership and management of the fascist side of the Internet that has eluded researchers, activists, and, well, just about everybody,” the hackers explained in a message first posted to 4Chan.

The trove includes all domain purchases and transfers alongside payment histories (excluding credit card data), account credentials, Git repositories, and the entirety of one Epik employee’s email inbox. Although the entire torrent is available now, Distributed Denial of Secrets — a collective archiving hacked and leaked data, often of ultra-rightwing groups — explained that the dataset is currently difficult to access via most torrent clients, although they are working to make an easily accessible version available to researchers and journalists in the near future.

Feels good, man.

Too little, too late — Billing itself as the “Swiss Bank of Domains” on its “About” page, Epik has for years enabled some of the worst sides of the internet to organize themselves. While other registration companies like GoDaddy help to de-platform alt-right groups and Nazi apologists by refusing their business, Epik all but openly embraces the rejected asshats of the internet.

That said, Epik apparently found its line in the ethical sand earlier this month when it refused to host an anonymous tip site supporting Texas’ barbaric right to life bill. The slight indication of the remnants of a conscience was apparently too little too late for the Anonymous hacktivists, who went ahead with their data drop on Monday.

Let’s savor the moment — There’s a lot of bad out there, so let’s take a moment to revel in the psychic pain coming for some of the internet’s worst inhabitants. Although it will undoubtedly take time for experts and journalists to parse through a data trove that size, there will almost certainly be some extremely juicy scandals and information lurking amidst all that code. Rest assured, we’re as excited for what’s to come on this front as you are, and will update everyone accordingly.