Hackers just took down YouTube's most popular video
On the internet, nothing is safe. Not even Despacito.
Early Tuesday morning, hackers defaced a number of music videos that were posted to YouTube by Vevo accounts. Among the affected videos was the world-famous music video by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, which was taken down.
The hackers, who called themselves Prosox and Kuroi'SH replaced some of the videos' thumbnails with photographs of a masked gang holding guns from Netflix's Casa de Papel. The hackers also wrote "Free Palestine" in some video descriptions, and changed some video titles to include their own names. One of the videos on Vevo's front page was re-titled "X - Hacked by Kuroi'SH & Prosox."
According to Twitter user Karthik Balakrishnan who spotted the hack, Prosox and Kuroi'SH messed with videos from a number of Vevo artists including Drake, Shakira, Maroon 5, and Katy Perry. ncx n
A Twitter user claiming to be one of the hackers claimed early this morning that he used a "script" to change the video titles, and that the breach was "just for fun." He then tweeted the link to Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off."
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"After seeing unusual upload activity on a handful of Vevo channels, we worked quickly with our partner to disable access while they investigate the issue,” YouTube told Mashable in a statement.
Vevo confirmed the breach to Mashable. “Vevo can confirm that a number of videos in its catalogue were subject to a security breach today, which has now been contained. We are working to reinstate all videos affected and our catalogue to be restored to full working order. We are continuing to investigate the source of the breach.”
This breach is not the first instance of trolling from these users. Someone also identifying themselves as Kuroi'SH hacked a number of news organizations' Twitter accounts, including that of NowThis, last week, and tweeted a range of posts including his name. Today, that user has claimed to be in the process of breaching the accounts of Shakira, Post Malone, and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Topics Cybersecurity Google YouTube
Monica wrote for Mashable's Tech section with a focus on retail, internet of things, and the intersections of technology and social justice. She holds a degree in creative writing from Brown University, and has previously written for Dow Jones Media, the New York Post, Yahoo Finance, and others. In her free time, she can be found attempting to cook Asian food, buying board games, and looking for new hobbies.
