On Saturday, a hacker hijacked Microsoft’s official YouTube channel and removed all the videos that were hosted on it. The hacker replaced the videos with others claiming that Microsoft was holding a contest.
The channel’s description was changed to “Wish to Become Sponsored? Message me.” Meanwhile the titles of two videos that the hacker published were “We are sponsoring” and “Make us a Background to Get Subbox!!!”
A message that was posted by the alleged hacker read “I DID NOTHING WRONG I SIMPLY SIGNED INTO MY ACCOUNT THAT I MADE IN 2006 :/” It is thought that the reasoning of such a statement being written is that the hijacker had registered during the early days of the website and that the account was claimed by Microsoft. If this is what happened, the major error made was that the original email retained access to the account.
This whole incident may have occurred due to YouTube making users link their old accounts with their Google accounts. It is believed that this mandatory action could be the reason how the previous owner gained access to the current account.
It is thought that the user’s email address was linked with the Google Account used by Microsoft on YouTube. If this is what happened, the hijacker may have been able to reset the password and therefore gain access to the account. Upon hearing such news, this may well cause a large amount of concern amongst other brands that use the website to promote their business.
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos states “If that’s true, then it’s a colossal foul-up by YouTube that may concern other well-known brands who have established presences on the video network.”
Microsoft so far has refused to comment about this incident and how the account was hacked. They have now regained full control of the account and reinstalled all of the videos that had been deleted by the hijacker. The YouTube account of the user who it is believed conducted the hack has been terminated.
This is the second high profile incident of YouTube accounts being hijacked over the last two weeks. Last week, Sesame Street’s YouTube channel was hijacked and used to show videos of an adult nature.
To reduce the chances of your account being hijacked, it has been recommended to use strong and unique passwords and to ensure that no unwanted email addresses have access to your Google account.
