The infamous online forum 4chan suffered a security breach on Tuesday.

As of writing, the 4chan website was inaccessible, with social media users reporting the site experiencing sporadic outages for extended periods.

Messages on another message board, which TechCrunch saw, celebrated the hack. One person said the hacker was inside 4chan's system for more than a year.

Several pictures that seem to show 4chan's internal system were shared online. These pictures reportedly showed the site's back end, source code, and ways to ban users, which only the site's moderators can see. The shared information also included a list of people who are said to be 4chan moderators and 'janitors.' Janitors can delete posts and discussions but have fewer powers than moderators. Moderators, for example, can also see users' IP addresses.

Because 4chan is known for its violent political connections, this cyberattack might reveal the people who manage these forums, which are now very important for alt-right groups.

TechCrunch got in touch with several email addresses that were shared and talked to one of the people who used one of the email addresses. A 4chan administrator, who spoke to TechCrunch without giving their name, said they were sure that the shared information and pictures were real.

"I have no compelling reason to believe otherwise," the janitor remarked.

I'm quite surprised. The moderation team at 4chan has had leaks before, but this is clearly a much bigger problem, the janitor told TechCrunch. I'm not happy about what's happening, and I'm sure most other people aren't either. But many of us have been doing this for a long time. Doxing, which is revealing someone's personal information, is a common activity on 4chan, and we've always known we could be exposed.

"I've been most worried about the leaked information, for clear reasons," said the janitor. "I think that the fact that 4chan was basically taken over by a hacker or hackers is probably worse than screenshots, at least for the site to keep working."

According to the administrator, it seems the hacker acquired the personal data of 4chan Pass subscribers, individuals who pay the site to circumvent post limits and access an exclusive board.

4chan did not furnish a response to an email soliciting commentary, dispatched to the website's designated press contact.

4chan is an online forum where people can post anonymously, and it's often seen as the internet's dark side. It mainly works as an image board, where users seem to enjoy shocking each other, often by sharing very offensive things. Sometimes, things from 4chan appear in the real world as simple memes or, more worryingly, as hateful ideas that encourage right-wing violence.

Internet memes like Pepe the Frog, rage comics, and wojaks became popular on 4chan and are now everywhere online. But 4chan is most known for its political sections, where extreme ideas can make young users believe in white supremacist views. QAnon, a group of far-right conspiracy theorists who support President Donald Trump, started on 4chan.

The person who shot and killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 had used 4chan regularly since he was a teenager. In 2022, an 18-year-old man killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. His 180-page document used ideas from the Christchurch shooter's online writings.