YouTube creators, particularly in the auto-tuning and car review community, have become targets of a massive wave of account hijacks, a media report said on Tuesday.
The account hacks are the result of a coordinated campaign where hackers use phishing emails to lure victims on fake Google login pages from where they collect users’ account credentials, an investigation by ZDNet found.
Victims of the attacks that have hit the creator community over the weekend include several high-profile car reviewers, the report said.
A YouTube spokesperson, however, told IANS that it has “not seen evidence of an increase in hacking attempts over the weekend”.
“We take account security very seriously and regularly notify users when we detect suspicious activity. We encourage users to enable two-factor authentication as part of Google’s account Security Checkup, which decreases the risk of hacking.
“If a user has reason to believe their account was compromised, they can notify our team to secure the account and regain control,” the YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.
According to a YouTube video from Life of Palos uploaded over the weekend, hackers were capable of bypassing two-factor authentication on users’ accounts.