How far-right extremist groups face exposure from army of hacktivists

Throughout 2021, websites associated with far-right extremist groups and extremist-friendly platforms and hosts have suffered from data leaks and breaches that have exposed the inner workings of far-right groups, and the nature of the movement as a whole.

There are many examples.

In the wake of the 6 January attacks, the Guardian reported on the leak from American Patriots III% website, which allowed the entire membership of the organization to be identified.

In that case, poor website configuration had allowed savvy researchers to view and republish the information on the open web.

Then, in September, it emerged that the website of the anti-government group the Oath Keepers was comprehensively breached, with membership lists, emails and what appeared to be the entire content of their server suddenly put on public display.

The data exfiltrated from that site was widely reported on, coming at a time when members of the organization were facing charges or on trial for their role in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

The Guardian reported that the breach showed that the group had enjoyed a surge in membership after the events of that day.

Although there were many such breaches and leaks this year, 2021 could be seen as the year in which a wave of anti-fascist cyber-activism crested.

In recent years, extremist groups including Patriot Front and The Base have had internal communications revealed by infiltrators.

Independent news organization Unicorn Riot has published dozens of chats from far-right groups leaked from Discord, a chat application created for gamers that came to be a platform favoured by extremists, including for the planning of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

Events like Unite the Right and the Capitol attack brought pressure to bear on platforms including Discord, which banned hundreds of extremist servers during 2021.

In the days leading up to the Capitol riot, Parler, a Twitter-like site that had advertised itself as an online home for the Trumpist right, leaked account details, videos, posts and other materials.

After the riot, Parler data was used to identify participants in the rally and others who had entered the Capitol building.

Then, in March, Gab, a platform that had long played host to extremists who had been banned from other platforms, was also hacked.

Gab had achieved notoriety for, among other things, being the venue where Robert Bowers announced his intention to attack the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018.

It also showed direct messages between Gab CEO Andrew Torba and a QAnon influencer, Richard Cornero Jr, who came to prominence under the alias Neon Revolt.

Then, in September, the domain name registrar and web hosting provider Epik had the entire contents of its home server repeatedly breached.

Epik had offered services of last resort to groups like neo-Nazi podcasters, The Right Stuff; sites like QAnon hub and the extremist playground 8chan; and even, for a time, Gab itself.

Given this deficit, and the surge of hacktivism on the left, breaches like those seen in the last year seem set to continue, she added.