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Coin Bureau Youtube Channel Hacked Despite 2FA Protection
Coin Bureau, a popular information portal for cryptocurrency developments with over 600,000 Twitter followers, Monday experienced a security breach on its YouTube channel.
Before being removed by YouTube, hackers allegedly posted a video with links to fraudulent fiat/cryptocurrency addresses soliciting a token sale.
READ ALSO: Crypto YouTubers Fall Victim To Hacking And Scamming Attempt
Coin Bureau employees were perplexed by the incident because their accounts were “secured with ultra-strong passwords and Google security keys.”
So our YouTube channel was just hacked. Have absolutely no idea how this happened. All accounts are secured with ultra strong passwords and Google security keys. @YouTubeCreators this is a serious problem which other creators are also experiencing. Please fix 🙏
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) January 24, 2022
This was far from an isolated incident. Several prominent cryptocurrency YouTubers, including Ivan on Tech and Real Vision Finance, have had their accounts compromised in the last few days.
It appears to have been a coordinated effort, as hackers posted a video titled “One World Cryptocurrency” in which they solicited the same type of token sales across all compromised accounts.
Furthermore, the accounts were all logged in from an IP address in the Philippines, despite the fact that VPNs were widely used, making it difficult to pinpoint exact login locations.
Seems like it's happening to other YouTubers at the same time. @Altcoinbuzzio @FloydMayweather Also possibly @IvanOnTech @aantonop (seen by my telegram members). pic.twitter.com/WvknuyL3Px
— Boxmining (@boxmining) January 23, 2022
It’s unclear how much money the hackers made because the scam videos were quickly removed by both the creators and YouTube.
However, there have been unconfirmed reports of losses from Twitter users.
One user, @James86965119, allegedly transferred $1,000 worth of digital currencies to the fake addresses posted by the hacker.
Furthermore, if the allegations made by the YouTubers are proven, it will call into question the effectiveness of Google’s two-factor authentication service.
In theory, hackers would be unable to gain access to a user’s YouTube account unless they had both the password and the security key.