Apparently hacking YouTube channels is the new, fun thing to do. On Sunday morning Microsoft had their YouTube channel commandeered but this time porn wasn't posted in place of educational videos. This hacker stripped away all of Microsoft's content and put up solicitations for sponsorships.
Sunday morning notifications went out to Microsoft YouTube channel subscribers indicating two new videos had been posted. Both of those videos ended up being simple clips that served only as solicitations for sponsorships. Before the entire thing was squashed a third video was also uploaded along those same lines. All of the other content on Microsoft's official channel had been removed leaving only these simple solicitations.
There was one message on the channel and it read,
“I DID NOTHING WRONG I SIMPLY SIGNED INTO MY ACCOUNT THAT I MADE IN 2006 :/”
Microsoft responded to GeekWire's request for comment with a statement, “We are aware that someone has altered the YouTube channel devoted to Microsoft videos. We are working with YouTube to rectify the situation.”
Three hours later Microsoft issued another statement indicating they had regained their YouTube channel at last.
“We have regained control of the Microsoft channel on YouTube, and we are working to restore all of the original content. We will continue to work with YouTube to ensure safeguards are in place for the future.”
This is the second time in as many weeks that a major company's YouTube channel had been hacked. Sesame Street's channel was breached by a particularly nefarious hacker who opted to post porn videos in place of cute muppets. Now, Microsoft had their channel taken over. In both situations it took YouTube quite a while to fix the problem and get the account back into the right hands.
It seems as if Google, the parent company of YouTube, may want to investigate exactly what is happening to allow high profile channels to be hacked. This might speak to a need for better safeguards for YouTube accounts or simply that high profile companies need to ensure the passwords on their channels are nice and secure.
The other troubling thing here is how long it takes YouTube to fix the problem. Microsoft appeared to have a few hours between noticing the issue and getting it resolved. In the case of Sesame Street the channel was at least shut down in 20 minutes but that 20 minutes seems like forever when it comes to children being exposed to explicit material.
Who's account could be next? It'll be hard to top snatching away Microsoft's channel or posting porn on Sesame Streets but I'm sure someone will try.
