Russian crooks are stealing YouTube accounts — what to do

A content creator with camera, microphone and laptop accessing YouTube on a smartphone.

(Paradigm credit: Sutipond Somnam/Shutterstock)

Google has busted a Russian gang that was defended to swindling YouTube content creators out of their accounts.

The gang's tactic was to befriend successful YouTube "creators" or "YouTubers" — those YouTube uploaders of original content such as PewDiePie who have enough followers to earn a lot of money through ads, merchandising and affiliate links — and suggest partnerships or other types of fiscal or promotional agreements.

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According to a post yesterday (Oct. twenty) by Google Threat Analysis Grouping's Ashley Shen, the gang would then send poisoned files to the creators to steal passwords and session cookies, enabling the crooks to take over the creators' accounts.

"The actors backside this entrada, which we attribute to a group of hackers recruited in a Russian-speaking forum," Shen wrote, "lure their target with fake collaboration opportunities (typically a demo for antivirus software, VPN, music players, photo editing or online games), hijack their aqueduct, then either sell it to the highest bidder or use information technology to circulate cryptocurrency scams."

The stolen accounts, Shen said, could be resold for up to $iv,000 each.

How to protect your YouTube account

To protect your YouTube and other social-media accounts from hackers and hijackers, Google recommends:

Paying attention when your browser warns y'all that a website might not be prophylactic to access
Scanning all downloaded files with some of the all-time antivirus software before opening them
Turning on Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection in your Chrome security settings
Using two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect your accounts from hackers who might have your passwords

Tom'southward Guide would also recommend using one of the best password managers as well, considering storing passwords in a browser makes them ripe targets for data-stealing malware.

Shen provided an instance of an e-mail message sent to a YouTube creator proposing to pay the YouTuber to promote a brand of antivirus software. The message said the YouTuber would demand to install and demonstrate the antivirus software on video.

If the YouTuber agreed, the crooks would then ship the creator an instant bulletin, e-mail bulletin, PDF or document with links to a website where the creator could download the software.

Shen said more than i,000 malicious websites and social-media accounts were created for this purpose, many of which mimicked legitimate brands such as Cisco or Steam.

But the software the YouTuber would download and install contained malware that stole passwords and session cookies, those tiny $.25 of information that keep you logged into online accounts for long periods of time. Armed with those stolen items, the crooks could take over the YouTube accounts.

The masterminds behind this scheme used Russian-language online forums to recruit lower-level crooks to do the dirty work, promising between 25% and seventy% of the revenue from the hijacked aqueduct depending on the amount of evil deeds they'd be willing to practice.

Shen said that beginning Nov. 1, YouTube content creators whose channels earn money will need to have 2FA enabled on their Google accounts to access certain YouTube tools.

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Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, lawmaking monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security infinite for more than fifteen years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom'south Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown upwardly in random TV news spots and even moderated a console discussion at the CEDIA dwelling-technology conference. Y'all can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.