Kiwi Farms, an internet forum notorious for organizing harassment campaigns, is working on restoring its online presence after suffering a breach by hackers. This incident occurred shortly after Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure company, blocked access to Kiwi Farms due to concerns over dangerous rhetoric. In a blog post, Kiwi Farms informed its users that their passwords and email addresses may have been compromised as a result of the breach. The forum expressed the need to reformat and reinstall its systems while also evaluating its security measures comprehensively.
Prior to the breach, Cloudflare had provided Kiwi Farms with protection against such attacks. However, earlier this month, Cloudflare’s CEO, Matthew Prince, announced the decision to block access to Kiwi Farms through their infrastructure, which includes web hosting services and cybersecurity. Prince acknowledged the seriousness of this action, emphasizing that it was a difficult decision to make for Cloudflare as an internet infrastructure provider.
Prince explained that the escalation of dangerous rhetoric and specifically targeted threats on the Kiwi Farms site led to an unprecedented emergency and a perceived immediate threat to human life. This elevated level of risk triggered the decision to block access, a situation that Prince had not encountered before with any other customer.