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Breaking News, National

BREAKING: Epik Software home to a California recall vote misinformation website

[SAMMAMISH, Wash.] – (MTN) The first fallout of the Anonymous hack of Sammamish based Epik Software is coming to light, and it includes a misinformation campaign by Republican Larry Elder in the California governor recall.

As the chances of current Governor Gavin Newsom being recalled all but evaporated in the last few weeks, Larry Elder and his surrogates started a campaign to try and delegitimize the election before it even started.

In a report on NBC News, Elder appealed to his supporters yesterday to use an online form on the website stopcafraud.com to report fraud. He went on to claim the site had “detected fraud” in the “results” of the California recall election “resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor.”

“This is really becoming the standard GOP playbook,” said Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America think tank who studies democracy. “This is democracy 101. If you don’t have elections that are accepted and decisive, then you don’t really have a democracy, because the alternative is violence or authoritarianism.”

There is one major problem with the claim of fraud – the election hasn’t even started. So where does Epik come into this?

Epik Software is the domain registrar for stopcafraud.com, created on August 27. Allegedly, information gleaned from the hack shows the website is already prepopulated with fake data before the site went live to the public according to a claim made by Heidi Cuda, an investigative reporter.

When the website was first published, it contained no disclaimer that it was backed and funded by the Elder campaign, a campaign law violation. After NBC News reached out for comment, the required disclaimer was added. Additionally, the website has no privacy policy and does not provide disclaimers on how the data collected may or may not be used by third parties.

It is important to note that Epik Software is not directly involved in the physical creation of the website or the manufacturing of fake data. The company provides DNS and hosting services, and is popular among alt-right, white nationalist, militant, QAnon, and misinformation groups.

BIPOC, Breaking News, LGBTQIA, Local, National

BREAKING: DNS and host provider Epik Software hacked by Anonymous

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An update to this story is available: Anonymous hack of Epik reveals a devastating amount of information

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the amount of data hacked is 180GB.

[Sammamish, Wash.] – (MTN) Sammamish, Washington based Epik Sofware, the controversial DNS and host provider for websites and apps such as Parler, Gab, and 8Chan was breached by the hacker group Anonymous. The organization announced they were able to access and download ten years of data, with most of it unencrypted. In a message posted by the group, they provided details to access founder Rob Monster’s e-mails, as proof of their claims.

Epik Software provides hosting and DNS to thousands of websites, most involved in the dark corners of the web that spread hate, discuss and plan domestic terrorism, platform QAnon conspiracies, and spread disinformation. A DNS is similar to the physical address of a home or business. Websites use an IP address, which could be thought of as latitude and longitude for a physical location. Most people won’t navigate to an address using that data and instead will look for “100 Main Street.” A DNS provider enables a URL (or multiple URLs) to point to an IP to a common URL.

The potential information on the people or business behind sites such as Parler, Gab, The Storm Front, prolifewhistleblower, 8Chan, BitChute, and Patriot.win, to list a few. Additionally, Anonymous is claiming they have passwords, internal communications, and other data going back ten years. For some sites and apps such as Parler, most information is already known. The bigger reveal could expose thousands of people involved in websites that peddle suicide advice, medical misinformation, and support QAnon.

One-hundred-and-eighty gigabytes of compressed data were released and currently, several sources are working to verify the data and make it usable for researchers and journalists.

The company based out of Sammamish, Washington, and run by Rob Monster, operates under the banner of protecting First Amendment rights. However, the company has a history of not cooperating with criminal investigations when websites have crossed lines into potential criminal behavior.

The company recently made headlines for providing DNS services to the Texas website prolifewhistleblower, after GoDaddy booted the site. The website was created so people could report anyone helping a Texas resident gain access to an abortion, and earn a $10,000 bounty. Less than a week after Epik became the DNS, their legal team also dropped the website. GoDaddy has offices in Kirkland, Washington.