Pastebin.com could soon find itself on the wrong side of some of its most reliable traffic generators, namely, Anonymous, (what’s left of) LulzSec, and other hackers now that the site’s owner, Jeroen Vader, said he plans on hiring more staff to patrol the text-sharing site for “sensitive information,” according to a BBC report.
Pastebin.com has become the default location for hackers, particularly ones affiliated with LulzSec and Anonymous, to publish sensitive information.
The BBC reports that, at present, Pastebin uses an abuse report system to moderate content. Under the current system, Vader claims to receive some 1,200 daily abuse reports. He hopes that by hiring additional staff, Pastebin will be able to remove sensitive content more quickly.
The site, which has been around for a decade saw its highest traffic levels in May and June of last year, when hacktivist groups like Anonymous and LulzSec used the site to host and publish data gleaned from compromised corporate networks, according to a report by The Next Web.
Among the organizations whose misfortune helped drive visitors to Pastebin were Sony, PBS,the FBI’s Infragard program, and Fox’s popular music competition show, The X-Factor.
Pastebin, itself, has been the subject of attacks, as well. The site went down twice as a result of DDoS attacks earlier this year. It has also hosted the sensitive personal information of various law enforcment agents.
