Hackers have deleted the most popular video on YouTube. It turned out, you should not be a hacking guru for that

You do not need to hack the entire service in order to delete someone’s video from YouTube. All you need is to get the credentials to sign in to the account from which the video was posted. So did the hackers...

You do not need to hack the entire service in order to delete someone’s video from YouTube. All you need is to get the credentials to sign in to the account from which the video was posted. So did the hackers who removed the most popular video on the platform, a video for the song Despacito of Puerto Rican artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee with 5 billion views. Dozens of musical clips of Shakira, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and other popular artists who collaborated with Vevo also disappeared from the site.

YouTube representatives said the platform itself was not hacked. The company temporarily disabled access to several Vevo channels, where suspicious activity was detected, and began investigating the incident.

Well known hackers Prosox and Kuroi'sh took the responsibility for this hack as they tweeted that they did it for fun and in the reality they like YouTube.

@YouTube Its just for fun i just use script "youtube-change-title-video" and i write "hacked" don t judge me i love youtube <3

— Prosox (@ProsoxW3b) April 10, 2018

It is not known yet how exactly they got access to the account. Most likely, one of Vevo's accounts was compromised by a fishing page. If the account was not protected by two-factor authentication, then it was enough just to intercept the login and password. The two-factor authentication is rarely included into corporate accounts used by several employees. However, security experts say that additional security, for example, using SMS-code, can not be considered reliable enough. A false login page can completely imitate the original and also request a code to confirm the entry. While the code is active, hackers can log into your account.

The attack of Prosox and Kuroi’sh really looks like a hooliganism. If the attackers would invest more time and resources, they could, for example, redirect payments from YouTube to their bank account, rather than to the account of Vevo.

By the way, the fans of Despacito do not have to worry. The video reappeared on YouTube in two hours. The views are also in place.