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Well this is shitty. I have several domains registered through Epik. I think it’s bullshit all of my personal information is now being shared in a torrent becau

Well this is shitty. I have several domains registered through Epik. I think it’s bullshit all of my personal information is now being shared in a torrent because there were other unsavory customers. I, and likely countless others, have nothing to do with any of these domains/people this site claims Epik is hosting.

gkoberger 5y ago
You're right, you don't deserve your information to be out there. However, Epik is a badly run registrar (as evident by the leaks), and the only reason any of us know about them is because they've worked so hard to attract unsavory customers. Registrars mostly offer the same service at the same price, and catering to unsavory clients is their only differentiating feature. It's their entire marketing scheme (take on customers that legitimate registrars won't), so it's not surprising that they're actually pretty illegitimate. I'm sorry your data was leaked, and I'd take this as a sign to move.
- shiftpgdn 5y ago
  How is that any different than a well lauded service like nearlyfreespeach.net? Just because you believe in the first amendment doesn't mean you should be the target of harassment.
  - gkoberger 5y ago
    Every single registrar is targeted by hackers daily. I'm not convinced this is a sign of targeted harassment as much as just shoddy security practices.
    - Natsu 5y ago
      The hackers in this case released a statement giving their exact reasons for doing this, though, and it was hacked precisely because it hosts badspeech. So it's not a random hack, they did this specifically to give information out to activists. I wonder if the media outlets will continue with their policies of not reporting on hacked info or not?
      - gkoberger 5y ago
        No media outlet in the world has ever had a policy of not reporting on hacks. Sure, they won't show the data or how to get it yourself, but that's crazy to say that media outlets don't report on hacks.
        Natsu 5y ago
        Many were advocating exactly that, though: https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/responsible-reporting-in-an-age-of-irresponsible-information/ https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/responsible-reporting-in... Then at least some places put into place policies like that, though some were then modified later: https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/16/twitter-changes-its-hacked-materials-policy-in-wake-of-new-york-post-controversy/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/16/twitter-changes-its-hacked...
        smoldesu 5y ago
        Twitter is not a "media outlet". That kind of mentality is the one that encouraged thousands to microwave their iPhone to charge it.
        Natsu 5y ago
        I agree that Twitter is not something generally trustworthy, but that ignores Twitter's role in breaking news. The many places that generally are called "media outlets" that have reported news with tweets as their primary sources to the point where I think you would have trouble finding a media outlet that is an exception.
  - eigengrau5150 5y ago
    NFS.net probably wouldn't tolerate many of the clients that Epik takes pride in hosting, though they do take on some of that type to fund their MFFAM efforts. https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq?keywords=offensive&submit=Search+for+Keywords&form=1#BecauseFuckNazisThatsWhy https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq?keywords=offensiv... > What is the "MFFAM" policy? > Because we believe in free speech, we host a small amount of offensive content. Some days, that's really hard to do. There are views expressed using our service that we find personally repugnant. (Although we don't host as much of that type of content as one might expect, given our extremely broad Terms & Conditions of Service. The simple fact is that our service is for smart people, which disproportionately excludes people who hold those types of views.) > Nonetheless, our content policy does occasionally put us in a position of accepting money to host sites we find abhorrent. But we have no interest in profiting from sites like that. For that reason, since our founding in 2002, we have what we have more recently started calling the MFFAM policy: Morons Funding the Fight Against Morons. > When we find a repugnant site on our service, we mark the account. We receive reports about all payments to such accounts, and we take a portion of that money larger than the amount of estimated profit and we donate it to the best organization we can find. The best organization in any given case meets two criteria: > 1. The recipient organization does share our values. > 2. The recipient organization is as opposite (and hopefully as offensive) as possible to the site operator that funded the donation. > Examples of organizations that have received funding over the years include the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, local chapters of the NAACP, the National Bail Fund Network, the American Immigration Council, the Trevor Project, and others. > This policy isn't perfect by any means, but neither is the world we live in. MFFAM does let us help the organizations that we hope will eventually get us closer to that perfect world. It helps the people who operate repugnant sites understand that they are here because we tolerate them... barely... not because we endorse them or their views. It also does a pretty decent job of further thinning out the number of such sites, as a fair number of people who run them only believe in free speech when they're the ones talking.
  - john-doe 5y ago
    https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#BecauseFuckNazisThatsWhy https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#BecauseFuckNazisT...
- notadev 5y ago
  I hadn’t heard any claims about unsavory customers until I was already a customer myself. I joined them because their Whois privacy was free while I had to pay for it on GoDaddy, nothing else.
  - somehnguy 5y ago
    Namecheap offers it for free as well if you’re looking for a place to move. I use namecheap as my registrar and cloudflare for dns. Though the free namecheap dns worked completely fine for the years I used it too.
    - notadev 5y ago
      Thanks, it looks like I’m going this route. It’s a bit pricey to transfer all domains at once so I have to pick and choose. For anyone else in the same boat, they offer a promo code “TLD21TS8” which reduces the transfer costs by 64%.
- lrae 5y ago
  > and the only reason any of us know about them is because they've worked so hard to attract unsavory customers No. Epik is (also) known for providing good prices for (medium sized) domain owners (and everybody else who just wanted to transfer their domains for a fair price.): https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-com-promo-deals-and-happy-hour-mega-thread.1148974/ https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-com-promo-deals-and-ha...
  - tzs 5y ago
    That linked forum discussion does not exactly make Epik look good. The first post from someone not employed by Epik is someone from Nigeria asking if they can buy a .US domain. An Epik staff member tells them that .US are restricted to those with US contact information (which is almost correct--you need to be a US citizen, resident, organization, or a foreign entity with a bona fide presence in the US). Then the Epik CEO answers that post suggesting how to circumvent the .US rules: > However, just use the free WHOIS privacy proxy. Problem solved. You will need to keep the privacy on in this case. That won't actually work because (as the Epik staff member points out in another reply to the Nigerian post) .US does not allow WHOIS privacy proxies.
    - lrae 5y ago
      I didn't link it to make Epik look good. Don't like Epik, don't like its CEO. But Epik is absolutely one if not the registrar you stumbled upon the last couple of years if you looked for good transfer prices. I just think users should give other users in this thread the benefit of the doubt that they weren't Epik customers to support a fascist, hardcore libertarian Christian, Nazi, ... CEO and his company in any form. They might just have googled for fair .com transfers and transferred a couple of domains in.
      - smoldesu 5y ago
        I don't bite. There's a whole diaspora of name registrars, but only one of them marketed themselves as the right-leaning choice (Rob Monster made damn sure of that). Hacks like this are the price of doing business with egomaniacs.
caslon 5y ago
I have to ask: If it wasn't for the freedom to share information, as is given by the Constitution, why'd you pick Epik? Their prices aren't particularly good, they don't really advertise themselves as having any features other registrars don't have, and don't really seem to have a lot going for them. They aren't even acknowledging the fact that they got hacked: https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1437543353357328389 https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1437543353357328389 It sucks what happened to you, but the only thing Epik sold themselves with is the same freedom that these people are utilizing.
- RIMR 5y ago
  They either are extremely privacy and freedom oriented and chose Epik with a false belief that they would uphold their privacy and freedom of speech. Or they run websites that contain content that would get them removed from most mainstream platforms, and likely would earn them an unforgiving response here should they share those sites. I am inclined to believe it is the latter, as that is literally the selling point of Epik's services: That your violent or extremist rhetoric won't get your terminated from the service.
  - shiftpgdn 5y ago
    Just because someone does not censor other does not make them a neo-nazi or white supremacist. This is an ideological difference.
    - user-the-name 5y ago
      Not in general. But in this specific case? They are neo-nazis and white supremacists.
      - rvz 5y ago
        That doesn't make it any right to involve leaking the personal information of innocent users using the platform because they found that Epik was offering WHOIS privacy cheaper than another registrar. (GoDaddy) The ones who hacked Epik are just as bad as the 'neo-nazis' and 'white supremacists' you speak of.
RIMR 5y ago
Epik is owned by Rob Monster, who is a open and proud Neo Nazi and antisemite. You chose to do business with him despite of who he was and what he enables. That you didn't understand these facts before hand was your failure. This should be a lesson in exercising moral and ethical restraint, and being conscious of who you do business with. Guilt by association sucks, but I am very skeptical about anyone who says that they run a website on Epik, simply because it is the go-to webhost for extremist and violent content.
- techrat 5y ago
  > Epik is owned by Rob Monster, who is a open and proud Neo Nazi and antisemite. You chose to do business with him despite of who he was and what he enables When I first heard of Epik, it was due to the kinds of sites/domains he handled that were being kicked off other services for egregious reasons (including and not limited to: hosting white supremacist shooter manifestos, doxxing for murder). That in of itself told me to stay far, far away from Epik. Advocating for free speech doesn't mean moral abandonment, either. There's a reason things like fighting words, threats of harm aren't considered protected speech... and there's (sadly) quite a few on here who still have yet to learn that part of the lesson when it comes to speech online. Epik's business model is to specifically cater to Neo Nazis. https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy4yg9/the-far-right-has-found-a-web-host-savior https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy4yg9/the-far-right-has-fou... https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/11/problem-epik-proportions https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/11/problem-epik-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik_(company) > Epik is known for providing services to websites with far-right content, such as the social network Gab, video hosting service BitChute, conspiracy theory website InfoWars, and neo-Nazi message board website The Daily Stormer.[1][6][28] It was described in 2019 by Vice as "a safehaven for the extreme right" and in 2021 by The Seattle Times as "a home for far-right websites" because of its willingness to host far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers.[1][29][30] In 2021, The Daily Telegraph wrote that Epik was "a safe harbour for websites said to be enabling the spread far-right extremism and carrying Neo-Nazi content";[25] the same year, Fortune called the company the "right wing’s best friend online".[9] NPR reported in February 2021 that "when websites flooded with hate speech or harmful disinformation become too radioactive for the Internet, the sites often turn to [Epik] for a lifeline."[13]
xqzqz 5y ago
Why didn't you use a trustworthy host? You know the right can't netsec.
peanut_worm 5y ago
Your information is being shared in a torrent because Epik has bad security.
- rvz 5y ago
  That can be true of any website or service part of the haveibeenpwned.com database.
- nyolfen 5y ago
  loling as i imagine applying this logic to the capitol police for 1/6

gkoberger 5y ago

You're right, you don't deserve your information to be out there. However, Epik is a badly run registrar (as evident by the leaks), and the only reason any of us know about them is because they've worked so hard to attract unsavory customers. Registrars mostly offer the same service at the same price, and catering to unsavory clients is their only differentiating feature. It's their entire marketing scheme (take on customers that legitimate registrars won't), so it's not surprising that they're actually pretty illegitimate. I'm sorry your data was leaked, and I'd take this as a sign to move.

shiftpgdn 5y ago
How is that any different than a well lauded service like nearlyfreespeach.net? Just because you believe in the first amendment doesn't mean you should be the target of harassment.
- gkoberger 5y ago
  Every single registrar is targeted by hackers daily. I'm not convinced this is a sign of targeted harassment as much as just shoddy security practices.
  - Natsu 5y ago
    The hackers in this case released a statement giving their exact reasons for doing this, though, and it was hacked precisely because it hosts badspeech. So it's not a random hack, they did this specifically to give information out to activists. I wonder if the media outlets will continue with their policies of not reporting on hacked info or not?
    - gkoberger 5y ago
      No media outlet in the world has ever had a policy of not reporting on hacks. Sure, they won't show the data or how to get it yourself, but that's crazy to say that media outlets don't report on hacks.
      - Natsu 5y ago
        Many were advocating exactly that, though: https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/responsible-reporting-in-an-age-of-irresponsible-information/ https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/responsible-reporting-in... Then at least some places put into place policies like that, though some were then modified later: https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/16/twitter-changes-its-hacked-materials-policy-in-wake-of-new-york-post-controversy/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/16/twitter-changes-its-hacked...
        smoldesu 5y ago
        Twitter is not a "media outlet". That kind of mentality is the one that encouraged thousands to microwave their iPhone to charge it.
        Natsu 5y ago
        I agree that Twitter is not something generally trustworthy, but that ignores Twitter's role in breaking news. The many places that generally are called "media outlets" that have reported news with tweets as their primary sources to the point where I think you would have trouble finding a media outlet that is an exception.
- eigengrau5150 5y ago
  NFS.net probably wouldn't tolerate many of the clients that Epik takes pride in hosting, though they do take on some of that type to fund their MFFAM efforts. https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq?keywords=offensive&submit=Search+for+Keywords&form=1#BecauseFuckNazisThatsWhy https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq?keywords=offensiv... > What is the "MFFAM" policy? > Because we believe in free speech, we host a small amount of offensive content. Some days, that's really hard to do. There are views expressed using our service that we find personally repugnant. (Although we don't host as much of that type of content as one might expect, given our extremely broad Terms & Conditions of Service. The simple fact is that our service is for smart people, which disproportionately excludes people who hold those types of views.) > Nonetheless, our content policy does occasionally put us in a position of accepting money to host sites we find abhorrent. But we have no interest in profiting from sites like that. For that reason, since our founding in 2002, we have what we have more recently started calling the MFFAM policy: Morons Funding the Fight Against Morons. > When we find a repugnant site on our service, we mark the account. We receive reports about all payments to such accounts, and we take a portion of that money larger than the amount of estimated profit and we donate it to the best organization we can find. The best organization in any given case meets two criteria: > 1. The recipient organization does share our values. > 2. The recipient organization is as opposite (and hopefully as offensive) as possible to the site operator that funded the donation. > Examples of organizations that have received funding over the years include the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, local chapters of the NAACP, the National Bail Fund Network, the American Immigration Council, the Trevor Project, and others. > This policy isn't perfect by any means, but neither is the world we live in. MFFAM does let us help the organizations that we hope will eventually get us closer to that perfect world. It helps the people who operate repugnant sites understand that they are here because we tolerate them... barely... not because we endorse them or their views. It also does a pretty decent job of further thinning out the number of such sites, as a fair number of people who run them only believe in free speech when they're the ones talking.
- john-doe 5y ago
  https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#BecauseFuckNazisThatsWhy https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/about/faq#BecauseFuckNazisT...
notadev 5y ago
I hadn’t heard any claims about unsavory customers until I was already a customer myself. I joined them because their Whois privacy was free while I had to pay for it on GoDaddy, nothing else.
- somehnguy 5y ago
  Namecheap offers it for free as well if you’re looking for a place to move. I use namecheap as my registrar and cloudflare for dns. Though the free namecheap dns worked completely fine for the years I used it too.
  - notadev 5y ago
    Thanks, it looks like I’m going this route. It’s a bit pricey to transfer all domains at once so I have to pick and choose. For anyone else in the same boat, they offer a promo code “TLD21TS8” which reduces the transfer costs by 64%.
lrae 5y ago
> and the only reason any of us know about them is because they've worked so hard to attract unsavory customers No. Epik is (also) known for providing good prices for (medium sized) domain owners (and everybody else who just wanted to transfer their domains for a fair price.): https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-com-promo-deals-and-happy-hour-mega-thread.1148974/ https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-com-promo-deals-and-ha...
- tzs 5y ago
  That linked forum discussion does not exactly make Epik look good. The first post from someone not employed by Epik is someone from Nigeria asking if they can buy a .US domain. An Epik staff member tells them that .US are restricted to those with US contact information (which is almost correct--you need to be a US citizen, resident, organization, or a foreign entity with a bona fide presence in the US). Then the Epik CEO answers that post suggesting how to circumvent the .US rules: > However, just use the free WHOIS privacy proxy. Problem solved. You will need to keep the privacy on in this case. That won't actually work because (as the Epik staff member points out in another reply to the Nigerian post) .US does not allow WHOIS privacy proxies.
  - lrae 5y ago
    I didn't link it to make Epik look good. Don't like Epik, don't like its CEO. But Epik is absolutely one if not the registrar you stumbled upon the last couple of years if you looked for good transfer prices. I just think users should give other users in this thread the benefit of the doubt that they weren't Epik customers to support a fascist, hardcore libertarian Christian, Nazi, ... CEO and his company in any form. They might just have googled for fair .com transfers and transferred a couple of domains in.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      I don't bite. There's a whole diaspora of name registrars, but only one of them marketed themselves as the right-leaning choice (Rob Monster made damn sure of that). Hacks like this are the price of doing business with egomaniacs.

caslon 5y ago

I have to ask: If it wasn't for the freedom to share information, as is given by the Constitution, why'd you pick Epik? Their prices aren't particularly good, they don't really advertise themselves as having any features other registrars don't have, and don't really seem to have a lot going for them. They aren't even acknowledging the fact that they got hacked: https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1437543353357328389 https://twitter.com/robmonster/status/1437543353357328389 It sucks what happened to you, but the only thing Epik sold themselves with is the same freedom that these people are utilizing.

RIMR 5y ago
They either are extremely privacy and freedom oriented and chose Epik with a false belief that they would uphold their privacy and freedom of speech. Or they run websites that contain content that would get them removed from most mainstream platforms, and likely would earn them an unforgiving response here should they share those sites. I am inclined to believe it is the latter, as that is literally the selling point of Epik's services: That your violent or extremist rhetoric won't get your terminated from the service.
- shiftpgdn 5y ago
  Just because someone does not censor other does not make them a neo-nazi or white supremacist. This is an ideological difference.
  - user-the-name 5y ago
    Not in general. But in this specific case? They are neo-nazis and white supremacists.
    - rvz 5y ago
      That doesn't make it any right to involve leaking the personal information of innocent users using the platform because they found that Epik was offering WHOIS privacy cheaper than another registrar. (GoDaddy) The ones who hacked Epik are just as bad as the 'neo-nazis' and 'white supremacists' you speak of.

RIMR 5y ago

Epik is owned by Rob Monster, who is a open and proud Neo Nazi and antisemite. You chose to do business with him despite of who he was and what he enables. That you didn't understand these facts before hand was your failure. This should be a lesson in exercising moral and ethical restraint, and being conscious of who you do business with. Guilt by association sucks, but I am very skeptical about anyone who says that they run a website on Epik, simply because it is the go-to webhost for extremist and violent content.

techrat 5y ago
> Epik is owned by Rob Monster, who is a open and proud Neo Nazi and antisemite. You chose to do business with him despite of who he was and what he enables When I first heard of Epik, it was due to the kinds of sites/domains he handled that were being kicked off other services for egregious reasons (including and not limited to: hosting white supremacist shooter manifestos, doxxing for murder). That in of itself told me to stay far, far away from Epik. Advocating for free speech doesn't mean moral abandonment, either. There's a reason things like fighting words, threats of harm aren't considered protected speech... and there's (sadly) quite a few on here who still have yet to learn that part of the lesson when it comes to speech online. Epik's business model is to specifically cater to Neo Nazis. https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy4yg9/the-far-right-has-found-a-web-host-savior https://www.vice.com/en/article/gy4yg9/the-far-right-has-fou... https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/11/problem-epik-proportions https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2019/01/11/problem-epik-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik_(company) > Epik is known for providing services to websites with far-right content, such as the social network Gab, video hosting service BitChute, conspiracy theory website InfoWars, and neo-Nazi message board website The Daily Stormer.[1][6][28] It was described in 2019 by Vice as "a safehaven for the extreme right" and in 2021 by The Seattle Times as "a home for far-right websites" because of its willingness to host far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers.[1][29][30] In 2021, The Daily Telegraph wrote that Epik was "a safe harbour for websites said to be enabling the spread far-right extremism and carrying Neo-Nazi content";[25] the same year, Fortune called the company the "right wing’s best friend online".[9] NPR reported in February 2021 that "when websites flooded with hate speech or harmful disinformation become too radioactive for the Internet, the sites often turn to [Epik] for a lifeline."[13]

xqzqz 5y ago

Why didn't you use a trustworthy host? You know the right can't netsec.

peanut_worm 5y ago

Your information is being shared in a torrent because Epik has bad security.

rvz 5y ago
That can be true of any website or service part of the haveibeenpwned.com database.
nyolfen 5y ago
loling as i imagine applying this logic to the capitol police for 1/6