--- title: "Students Hospitalized After Hackers Send Horrifying Pictures" description: "Users of a UC Irvine student-run Discord server fell victim to a horrifying cyberattack, and were sent extremely graphic content." date: "2024-01-20" modified: "2024-01-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/students-hospitalized-hackers-horrifying-pictures" categories: - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" tags: - "discord" - "the digest" --- # Students Hospitalized After Hackers Send Horrifying Pictures ![Users of a UC Irvine student-run Discord server fell victim to a horrifying cyberattack, and were sent extremely graphic content.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Graphic Attack Users of a UC Irvine student-run Discord server fell victim to a horrifying cyberattack. As [*CBS* reports](), nearly 3,000 current and former UC Irvine students were sent extremely graphic and violent content. This content was reportedly so appalling that it sent several students to the hospital. "I heard about a lot of people vomiting, a lot of people crying," computer science and engineering graduate student Alina Kim told *CBS*. "The videos included human corpses being sexually violated," Kim added in an [interview with *NBC*](). Other videos included disturbing footage of people hurting animals and children. According to the report, hackers infiltrated 30 Discord channels and demanded a ransom of just $1,000 — a shocking incident that highlights how easy it is to weaponize horrific content to target online communities. ## Fight Back In response, students jumped into action. "Once we realized how widespread the issue was, we started reaching out to as many people as we could," Kim told *CBS*. "Made a group chat where we coordinated our efforts." Thanks to some clever uses of bots that automatically rooted out the hackers and blocked them on Discord, Kim and her fellow students identified a whopping 400 accounts associated with the attack. According to Kim, some of the perpetrators were part of an "alt-right transphobic hate group." In a [statement to *Gizmodo*](), Discord claimed that it had removed responsible accounts, stating that "our Community Guidelines prohibit the uploading or sharing of any material depicting real violence, gore, or animal cruelty, and we take action when we see this kind of behavior, including by removing users, shutting down servers, and engaging with authorities." Worse yet, UC Irvine appears to be only one of several universities being targeted, according to *CBS*. Despite their best efforts, graphic images keep making it through the filters. But Kim is far from giving up. "I guess our message is: You chose the wrong school to mess with," she told *NBC*. **More on Discord:** *[Classified Military Secrets Leaked on Minecraft Discord Server]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()