A few days ago, Google released a report detailing phishing activities against YouTube users, which involved about 15,000 fake accounts and more than 1 million targeted information. These phishing attempts were carried out by multiple hackers, and the company said that since the end of 2019, it has recovered about 4,000 accounts.
However, the attacker does not just want creators to enter their passwords into a fake website-they try to infect their computers with malware and steal their login cookies, which is more than sending a link and waiting for someone to sloppy on the password. The attacks on things are much more intensive.
YouTube did not publicly say who was recruiting hackers, only that they were using Russian forums to advertise. The focus of the campaign is on YouTube accounts, rather than traditional goals such as government computer systems or banks, which shows how valuable it is to get the social accounts of influential people and the attention of audiences.
Hackers generally work like this: hackers contact YouTube users, pretend to offer advertising transactions, and promote VPNs, antivirus software, or other software on their channels. If the creator agrees, they will get a link, and if clicked, they will infect their computer with various malware, usually to steal cookies and passwords.
Due to the prevalence of two-factor authentication, cookies may be a particularly valuable target-hackers are looking for cookies that websites use to store user login sessions. If hackers get a YouTube cookie (and can use it before it expires), then they may have been able to take over the channel, or even change the password to lock out the rightful owner. Of course, because the YouTube account is tied to the Google account, this type of attack will also enable hackers to access Gmail, Google Drive, Photos, and other services tied to the account.
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According to Google, after all this work, hackers were able to sell these accounts for $3 to $4,000. Although this feels relatively cheap for a YouTube account with a large number of subscribers, the number may be so low because hackers want to seize accounts that they think can really make money. Last year, technology leaker Jon Prosser told Motherboard that hackers A scam was broadcast live on his channel-promising to double the Bitcoin sent by the audience-and earned $10,000 from it.
This event and similar events may be the reason why Google announced earlier this year that it required YouTube creators to turn on two-step verification and that it gave away thousands of security keys to high-risk users each year as an incentive. They cannot stop hackers who have taken over users’ computers, but making attacks more expensive may help slow them down.
In addition, Google has been fighting hackers in other ways to block their emails and files and to issue warnings when users visit malicious websites in Chrome. But given the value of creator accounts, criminals may not be discouraged from trying to obtain them–just like fraudulent comments on YouTube, evolving phishing attacks may become a part of online life in the foreseeable future.