In this ever-growing technology era, one has to ensure the data they put on the internet is in safe hands. No matter which platform you use to share data, there is always a risk of your data being misused. Recently, a group of hackers managed to breach Vevo’s YouTube channel taking down their most-watched videos.
This security breach alarmed a lot of viewers as they witnessed something unexpected when searching for popular music videos like ‘Despacito’. The hackers not only took down these videos but also replaced them with a different thumbnail and video title. Apparently, the thumbnail picture used was of a masked gang with guns taken from a Netflix show Casa de Papel and the video title consisted of their nicknames (Prosox and Kuroi’sh).
Immediately after this news spread like wildfire, YouTube claimed that it was Vevo that was hacked and not YouTube. Vevo is owned by the big three record companies in the United States: Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment. Vevo only hosts music videos from artists signed to Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group and those are published on YouTube.
YouTube also claimed that there is a big difference between YouTube and Vevo. Anyone with a google account can upload a video to YouTube’s mainstream. But this isn’t the case for Vevo. Vevo is managed by administrators responsible for uploading videos to the website and the Vevo YouTube channel. This means only authorized personnel have access to Vevo’s platform, which is broadcasted on YouTube. This personnel does not have any access to the rest of YouTube overall. It was Vevo’s servers that were hacked as all the affected videos came from that server.
Since this attack catered to specific music artists it is still unclear if the hackers got through individual artist accounts or had a wider breakthrough Vevo accounts. So far, only one hacker has claimed that they used scripts to alter video titles.
Vevo has already started fixing their security breaches where they have claimed that their affected videos and catalog have been restored to full working order. They are also currently investigating the source of the breach.
You can know more about this developing news originally reported by BBC.
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