Far-right influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate has become the target of an anonymous hacktivist group. Sensitive data from hundreds of thousands of subscribers to Tate’s “online university” was stolen.
On Thursday, hackers announced their breach of Tate's "The Real World" website by flooding the private members' chatroom with pro-feminist emojis and transgender pride flags, as first reported by DailyDot. The hackers also uploaded an emoji featuring an AI-generated photo of Tate with an exaggerated rear end, draped in the trans pride flag. Tate was streaming on the right-wring video platform Rumble while the hackers took over his website's primary chatroom.
Tate promotes "The Real World" as an online course that teaches his fans how to make money on the internet. The site promotes income streams such as online marketing, e-commerce, cryptocurrency trading, and more. Tate charges users $49.99 per month for the online course, which includes access to a community of other Tate fans and subscribers.
Tate is currently under house arrest as Romanian authorities investigate him and his brother for alleged sex crimes, money laundering, and human trafficking.
Despite Tate's legal issues, he has managed to grow a substantial fanbase online. His website claims to have 113,000 active subscribers, which, as Daily Dot notes, would generate a monthly income of $5.65 million.
The hackers described the breach as an act of hacktivism, claiming it was made possible by what they called the “hilariously insecure” state of Tate’s website. Once the hackers had access to "The Real World," they were able to “to upload emojis, delete attachments, crash everyone’s clients, and temporarily ban people."
Hackers were able to steal approximately 794,000 usernames that appear to belong to both the site's current and former members. In addition, the hackers have 324,382 email addresses that belong to users who were removed or failed to pay for their subscription. The contents of the site's 221 public and 395 private chat servers were also copied by the hackers.
Tate fans can check if they were affected by the breach via Have I Been Pwned, a website that alerts users when their data has been compromised. The hackers reportedly provided the stolen data to the platform.
