Linus Tech Tips is no more, as are Techquickie and Techlinked.
Over the past 24 hours, the Linus Media Group YouTube channels, which include Linus Tech Tips (15.3 million subscribers) as well as Techquickie (4.2 million subscribers), and TechLinked (1.81 million subscribers), made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Scammers gained access to the aforementioned accounts, either renaming them to Tesla and/or using them to livestream crypto scam videos. The hackers eventually started making old private videos public and vice versa before YouTube took the main Linus Tech Tips channel down, presumably to do some work on it.
The owner, Linus Sebastian, is already aware of the situation and the company appears to have taken the situation in jest.
All jokes aside, it is unclear how this happened, but it isn't an isolated incident. Over the past year, similar breaches have occurred and all appear to promote crypto scams. Vevo channels on YouTube for artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake, and Lil Nas X fell victim to a similar attack in the past.
One YouTuber believes to have cracked the code behind the scams. They claim that the perpetrators disguise themselves as fake sponsors to gain the trust of YouTubers only to make them download a file that results in the said data breach.
Given how often this has happenen, YouTube should have multiple security measures and safeguards in place by now. Until then, we can expect this happen to other prominent YouTube channels as well.
The silver lining to YouTube's lackadaisical security is this has happened before. History suggests the video-sharing giant is working hard to reinstate the affected channels. But, this doesn't solve anything. For as long as Google and YouTube don't beef up their security, the incident with the Linus Media Group, among several others, will just be one of the many others.
To be fair, Google and YouTube are in a tough spot. Several companies have employed different security measures in recent years to no avail.
Speaking of NFTs, the once-popular buzzword has lost its luster and credibility. Plenty of companies have dialed back on their support for NFTs in recent months, the latest being Deadrop. But, cryptocurrency and NFTs aren't without supporters. The Pokemon Company and Sony are preparing in case public opinion on the controversial technology turns around.
