Microsoft’s YouTube Page Gets Hacked

Sites include Microsoft.com , YouTube.com . Published on October 28th, 2011. Written by Anthony West.

If Microsoft’s YouTube page gets hacked, is it an attack on Microsoft or an attack on YouTube? The question might seem like a Zen koan, but is an important one to ask in light of news that Microsoft’s YouTube page has indeed been hacked.

News of the hacking broke after many of the software giant’s 24,000 subscribers logged on to be bombarded with solicitations for advertisement. According to reports all the official videos, including recent ad campaigns were deleted and replace with is effectively spam.

The attack is clearly that of people intent on causing trouble, but the question is trouble for whom? Again, the question is not a koan, but asked to highlight the fact that the attack exposes the vulnerabilities on the YouTube platform itself. The hacking of ‘official’ accounts is nothing new, but such occurrences have come to be the preserve of Twitter, not YouTube. The attack on Microsoft’s account in particular highlights a worrying weakness because a user like Microsoft would have taken robust steps to prevent such an occurrence.

As at this writing it’s not clear if things have been restored at the page and neither YouTube nor Microsoft is commenting on the hacking. One thing is creating though; official users of YouTube will be beefing up security on their channels as many would not be able to deal with the complete loss of a YouTube data.

Is YouTube security now suspect? Share your thoughts with us below.