Then, in September, 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 extremist playground, 8chan; and even, for a time, Gab itself.
CEO Rob Monster built up his business by promising an anything goes platform for such groups. The Guardian’s inspection of the data reveals that Monster – who has worked as a broker of domain names – had also speculatively snapped up dozens of domains which invoked the code words and preoccupations of the QAnon movement.
Megan Squire, senior fellow in data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, agreed with Salter’s assessment of the level of technical talent on the far right when it comes to security online. She said: “A lot of the people who are actually qualified to do this work are not going to be willing to work with these people.”
While “the hacktivist ethos is alive and well on the left”, Salteradded, extremist-friendly hosts like Epik are unable to hire the personnel who might help them create a defensive capacity. She described Epik’s data design as poor. “I haven’t seen anything that bad in my entire career,” she said,