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

Lebanese Protesters Are Using This ‘Bridgefy’ Messaging App - What is it?

Bridgefy is an offline messaging app that lets you communicate with friends and family when you don't have access to the Internet, by simply turning on your Bluetooth antenna. Due to WhatsApp outage and the poor internet services, a new offline messaging app known as Bridgefy has started to gain traction among Lebanese protesters. The people are recommending using this app in case there is a shutdown of internet services. Did you know that: 1 billion people aren’t covered by 3G or 4G networks. 3.3 billion people live in areas where the mobile Internet can be accessed but remain without a mobile Internet subscription. 1 billion people own a smartphone but don’t own a data plan. 40% of the world population is forecast to remain unconnected by 2025. These numbers represent huge amounts of potential users that aren’t being reached by mobile apps. Bridgefy keeps your app working even when people do not have access to the Internet. T...
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

Facebook updates iOS app to fix issues that let the camera open in the background

The issues were first reported this month This month, some users of Facebook’s iOS app  found that  that, in at least two situations, the app appeared to be activating the camera in the background without a user’s knowledge. Facebook said yesterday that it was submitting fixes for the issues to Apple, and the company tells us that, as of this morning, the updated app is now available for download on the App Store. I’ve downloaded the update to my iPhone 11 Pro, and I can’t get the camera to accidentally activate in either of the scenarios that were reported — but I also couldn’t get it to activate yesterday, so I can’t personally confirm that the issues are fixed. But if we take Facebook at its word that everything is resolved, it’s nice to see that the company acted quickly. Article reference:  https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20963791/facebook-issue-fix-camera-open-background-update-ios-app-store
Post a Comment
Read more