Several high-profile crypto YouTubers fell victim to a mass hacking incident on the afternoon of January 23rd.
https://twitter.com/CryptoWhale/status/1485296714173095938
Damages were kept within tight bounds
Among the hacked YouTube accounts were Ivan on Tech, Boxmining, The Moon Carl, Floyd Mayweather, Altcoinbuzz, and CoinMarketCap. As of now, most of the accounts have been restored and are under the control of their rightful owners again.
After taking control over the channel, the hacker posted a single one-minute video, supposedly advertising a token sale for an obscure token called One World Cryptocurrency, and asking viewers to send funds to the address 0x48b462CbDeAac1C1b10ec18a3860550Db463c74D on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. At the time of writing, the address has received incoming transactions totaling little more than 1,000 USD.
Inside job suspected
What is disturbing about this case is that it is unclear how the attacker gained control over several YouTube channels at the same time. Furthermore, the attacker was reportedly able to bypass two-factor authentication.
Michael Gu, who owns the YouTube channel Boxmining, rules out a SIM swapping attack or malware. He reports an unauthorized login to his channel from the Philippines, though, adding:
Very likely this is either a hack on YouTube side or a rogue employee. That’s how they got so many people at the same time.
