The notorious online forum, 4chan, experienced a security breach on Tuesday. At the time of writing, the 4chan website was inaccessible, with reports on social media indicating intermittent site downtime for several hours. TechCrunch observed messages on a rival message board celebrating the hacking, with one individual claiming that the hackers responsible for the intrusion had been embedded within 4chan's systems for over a year. Several screenshots, purportedly of 4chan's backend, circulated online, displaying what was alleged to be the site's backend, source code, and templates for banning users, information typically accessible only to the site's moderators. Furthermore, the leaked data reportedly included lists of 4chan's moderators and 'janitors' – users capable of deleting posts and threads but lacking certain privileges, such as viewing user IP addresses, enjoyed by moderators. Given 4chan's reputed violent political affiliations, this cyberattack could potentially expose those operating these forums, which are central to the alt-right movement. TechCrunch contacted several of the leaked email addresses and spoke with one individual. A 4chan janitor, speaking to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity, stated they were "confident" the leaked data and screenshots were "all real." "I don't see how they couldn't be," the janitor remarked. "To be honest, I'm surprised. While the 4chan moderation team has had data leaks in the past, this is clearly a problem on a larger scale. I'm not happy about the situation, and neither are a lot of other people. But many of the members have been doing this for years. Doxing has been a long-standing practice on 4chan, and there was always a chance of us being exposed," the janitor told TechCrunch. "For obvious reasons, I'm most concerned about the leaked information. I'd wager the fact that 4chan was essentially taken over by hackers is 'worse' than the screenshot leaks from a site continuation perspective," the janitor opined. According to the janitor, the hackers also appear to have obtained personal information of 4chan Pass subscribers, who pay for the privilege of bypassing post counters and accessing VIP boards. 4chan did not respond to a request for comment sent to the site's press email address. 4chan is a seemingly anonymous internet forum that operates as something of the dark underbelly of the web. For the most part, it functions as an image board where users, typically bored, post the vilest content imaginable to shock one another. The cultural exports 4chan generates also permeate the real world, either as seemingly harmless memes or as hateful rhetoric that incites far-right terrorism. Memes such as Pepe the Frog, LazyTown comics, and wojaks originally gained traction on 4chan before spreading across the internet. However, 4chan's greatest legacy lies in its political boards, where alt-right discourse can radicalize young users into adopting white supremacist ideologies. QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theorist group supportive of President Donald Trump, also originated on 4chan. The gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, was a regular user of 4chan since his teenage years. In 2022, an 18-year-old man killed 10 Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and his 180-page manifesto cited the online rhetoric of the Christchurch gunman.