Skip to main content

Demand for Stolen YouTube Credentials Surges in the Dark Web


The current cyber threat landscape is dominated by coronavirus-related attacks. As millions of people continue to work from home, cybercriminals are exploiting the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic to target collaboration tools, spread spear-phishing attacks, and recycle old usernames and passwords for credential dumping attacks.

A new trend follows up

  • Amidst all these threats, researchers from IntSights have observed yet another new trend in black markets and cybercrime forums. Over the past few weeks, they are witnessing a rapid rise in demand for stolen credentials of prominent YouTube accounts.
  • The surge in demand is attributed to the popularity of YouTube among online users during the quarantine.
  • “While YouTubers have always 'worked' from home, the recent uptick in the number and sophistication of attacks against home users has resulted in more bots (malware-infected computers) in which the attackers can search for access to specific services,” highlight IntSights researchers in their blog post.

Where does this lead to?

  • YouTube accounts from compromised computers or from logs of credentials can be of high value.
  • While stolen YouTube account credentials can be used to spread malware and launch fraud scams against viewers, they are also used to blackmail the account owner.
  • Cybercriminals see YouTube channels of popular personalities as a lucrative opportunity to generate revenue through extortion and other means.

What dark web actors want

  • As explained by IntSights, one snap poll run by an underground forum reveals that 80% of members want to see more YouTube credentials put up for sale. 
  • Another screenshot showed a seller auctioning over 680 YouTube accounts for a starting price of $400, some of which had as many as 40,000 subscribers.
  • The time limit of using these stolen credentials is often restricted to 24 hours before the actual owner contacts the YouTube support. 

Is there anything to worry about? 

While there are many ways to target YouTube channel owners, the recent study on stolen YouTube account credentials highlights that they were taken either from databases containing Google credentials or malware-infected computers.

“In the past, attackers used sophisticated phishing campaigns in combination with reverse proxy toolkits like Modlishka to defeat Google’s two-step verification (one-time password). However, none of the current sellers mention 2FA, which may mean these accounts did not opt-in for this additional security step," researchers added.

Original article: https://cyware.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google can now help you figure out that song stuck in your head - all you have to do is hum (or whistle) into your phone

  Google just launched its “hum to search” feature, which allows users to hum, whistle, or sing for 10–15 seconds in order to identify a song. The feature currently works in 20 languages, and Google hopes to add more. Google has finally launched the perfect feature for when a song is stuck in your head but you don’t know any of the words. “Hum to search” launched today on both the Google app for iOS and Android, according to Google’s blog, The Keyword. Users can also whistle or sing directly into the mic to identify a song. The technology works like this: the user can hum (whistle, or sing) for 10–15 seconds, and then Google’s technology takes the song’s melody and turns it into a numbers-based sequence. From there, the sequence can be used to “identify songs based on a variety of sources, including humans singing, whistling or humming, as well as studio recordings,” according to Google’s announcement. The sequence also strips away any other outside noise, like accompanying instru...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ransomware's Dangerous New Trick Is Double-Encrypting Your Data

  Ransomware groups have always taken a more-is-more approach . If a victim pays a ransom and then goes back to business as usual-hit them again. Or don’t just encrypt a target’s systems; steal their data first, so you can threaten to leak it if they don’t pay up. The latest escalation? Ransomware hackers who encrypt a victim’s data twice at the same time. Double-encryption attacks have happened before, usually stemming from two separate ransomware gangs compromising the same victim at the same time. But antivirus company Emsisoft says it is aware of dozens of incidents in which the same actor or group intentionally layers two types of ransomware on top of each other. “The groups are constantly trying to work out which strategies are best , which net them the most money for the least amount of effort,” says Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow. “So in this approach you have a single actor deploying two types of ransomware. The victim decrypts their data and discovers it’s not act...
Post a Comment
Read more

WhatsApp Users Exchanged Over 100 Billion Messages on New Year’s Eve, A New Record

WhatsApp is one of the most widely used communication apps on the planet and as such, clocks an insane number of messages and media exchanges on a daily basis. But the New Year's Eve broke a record that has been standing since WhatsApp's debut a decade ago. WhatsApp has revealed that users exchanged over 100 billion messages on New Year's eve. And out of that number, more than 20 billion messages were shared by Indian users alone. Moreover, around 12 billion out of the 100 billion+ messages shared on the platform were images. WhatsApp wrote in a press release that over 100 billion messages were shared globally on December 31 in the 24-hour duration leading up to the midnight of New Year's Eve. This is a record-breaking volume and is the highest number of messages exchanged in a single day ever since WhatsApp kicked off its services ten years ago. Out of those 100 billion+ messages shared on New Year's eve, WhatsApp says over 12 billion were images. Meanwhile...
Post a Comment
Read more