YouTube channels with a focus on the crypto industry have been hacked, according to a recent report by Metro. The massive attack focused on YouTube channels that discuss crypto content to their viewers. Some of the targeted channels included The Moon, BitBoy Crypto, BoxMixing, and even Floyd Mayweather who is the subject of a recent lawsuit.
Purpose Of The Attack
Similar to other YouTube attacks related to the crypto industry, the goal seems to have been to get victims to send them crypto. In a previous attack on YouTube channels, hackers used a video of Bill Gates to try and get viewers to send them cryptocurrency payments.
Possible Vector
The attack was probably not caused by any fault of the users. For one, these are people who understand the risk that comes with any online account. Consequently, they would have had measures in place to protect against such an attack, including 2FA.
In one Reddit post discussing the hack, the vector used to hack the channels was claimed to be a SIM Swap attack. Such an attack is quite sophisticated and requires the hacker to know personal details such as the phone number used to secure the YouTube channel. For such information to leak, it would mean that the blame could be partly placed on YouTube.
However, some are not convinced it was a SIM Swap account. They note that if that were the case, they would have been locked out of their phone network. However, their phones appear to be working as usual. They speculate that the hack probably originated from YouTube, and was caused by a rogue employee at the company. For one, they point to the sheer scale of the attack and how swiftly it occurred. In a SIM Swap attack, the hackers would have taken much longer to coordinate the attack across multiple networks in different countries.
The Aftermath Of The Attack
Thus far, all the channels that were temporarily hacked appear to have been restored. Besides that, the hackers do not appear to have made much money from their effort. Law enforcement has not made any comments regarding this particular case thus far. However, in the past, they have taken stun action against hackers. For instance, in the 2020 Twitter hacking scandal, the US Justice Department was able to round up all the main actors involved in the attack shortly after.
What To Do To Prevent Such An Attack?
For now, the best way to safeguard an online account remains 2FA authentication. To avoid becoming victims of such a scam, viewers of a YouTube channel should never send any crypto to any wallet address if it suddenly appears on one of their favorite YouTube channels. The failed attack shows that the dissemination of information to the world via those channels has been working. As knowledge of the crypto sector grows, these attacks are likely to be even less successful in the future.
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