The recent cyberattack exhibited strong coordination, with a surge of non-compliant content flooding multiple live-streaming rooms simultaneously.
On December 23, Kuaishou-W (1024.HK) gradually restored its live-streaming services, while other platform functions remained unaffected. At the time of reporting, Kuaishou's stock price had dropped by 3.37%, raising industry concerns over the company's cybersecurity defenses—how could such a large-scale attack by black and gray industries occur?
Kuaishou has yet to provide further clarification. Attempts to reach the Beijing Haidian District Police Public Relations Office were unsuccessful as of press time.
Multiple cybersecurity experts analyzing publicly available information suggest the attack qualifies as a P0-level incident—indicating a premeditated, large-scale breach. The response from Kuaishou's security team also exposed technical and organizational vulnerabilities.
A P0-level incident represents the highest severity, typically involving critical business disruptions requiring immediate action, such as system rollbacks, emergency patches, or temporary fixes, with direct involvement from senior leadership. Post-incident, an in-depth investigation is necessary to prevent recurrence.
The attack began late on December 22, lasting several hours before Kuaishou enforced measures including suspending live-streaming functions and banning certain accounts.
Experts from 360 Digital Security Group speculate this was a coordinated external hack, likely exploiting vulnerabilities in live-streaming interfaces to bypass real-name verification and content moderation. The scale and frequency of the attack highlight weaknesses in Kuaishou’s risk control defenses against extreme threats.
Meanwhile, AsiaInfo Security suggests the incident was not a traditional system breach but a targeted, large-scale assault on content governance. The attack demonstrated high synchronization, with non-compliant content flooding multiple streams simultaneously—indicating automated coordination rather than random actions. Attackers exploited legitimate business pathways, overwhelming moderation systems with seemingly compliant but rule-breaking behavior.
AsiaInfo experts note that gray market actors have shifted from "system infiltration" to "mechanism suppression," testing moderation limits via high-volume violations rather than hacking core systems. This "volume-based attack" aims to outpace platform response times, creating temporary lags in content control.
Anheng Information researchers add that attackers used automated scripts to manipulate bot accounts, launching mass non-compliant streams alongside fake engagement tactics, forcing Kuaishou to manually suspend affected rooms.
Qi Anxin expert Wang Liejun emphasizes that the attack’s success stems from black/gray industries adopting automated tools while platforms rely on manual defenses. Automated bot registrations and rapid content dissemination exceed human moderation capabilities, creating an insurmountable efficiency gap.
AsiaInfo concludes that Kuaishou’s ordeal reflects a new era of "capability warfare" in content security. As black/gray industries automate, resilience against extreme-scale attacks—not just vulnerabilities—determines platform safety.
The incident serves as a wake-up call: future content governance must prioritize real-time detection and dynamic response mechanisms. For platforms, mastering millisecond-level traffic control under high concurrency will be critical in countering volume-driven attacks.
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