Hackers Mess With South Korea’s YouTube Channel To Play Elon Musk Crypto Video
According to local media sources, the official South Korean government YouTube channel was hacked on Saturday to show a video of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk discussing cryptocurrencies.
Yonhap News reports that when the hackers gained access to this channel’s controls, they renamed it “SpaceX Invest” to make it appear to be associated with Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation services.
A spokesman for the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is responsible for maintaining the YouTube account, stated that security measures were taken immediately and the channel was restored by morning.
However, it is unclear what SpaceX Invest aims to sell. The hackers do not appear to have posted links to fake exchanges or attempted to promote specific cryptocurrencies in their broadcasts on the channels.
Image: The Bach Project
Hackers Promote Elon Musk Crypto Video
Musk stated in the interview that Tesla and SpaceX had bought bitcoin and that his electric car company accepts Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency he helped boost by 10% after tweeting about the memecoin.
However, the attackers appear to have preserved the Korean government’s emblem and identity during the broadcasts, causing confusion among subscribers.
It took authorities four hours to restore the compromised YouTube channel. However, before that, the cyber intruders tried to advertise cryptocurrency through the channel.
The identity and intentions of those responsible for the attacks are currently unknown, the newspaper reported, citing a statement from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The Korea Tourism Organization’s YouTube account was hacked. Since its restoration, the channel, which was followed by more than 500,000 people, has been unavailable.
Cyber attackers are targeting the crypto sector
The crypto sector, whose market capitalization typically exceeds $1 trillion, has recently become a target for cybercrime.
The use of social networking sites such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter by crypto-hackers to contact potential victims has become widespread.
In the past week, bitcoin exchanges, government officials and even digital wallets of Hollywood celebrities such as Bill Murray, known for his role in the movie Ghostbusters, were hacked.
KyberSwap, a decentralized trading platform, was compromised by malicious code launched via Google Tag Manager, allowing hackers to steal $265,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
Binance announced two days later that it had identified two of the hackers and was cooperating with the appropriate authorities for law enforcement.
BTC total market cap at $377 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Featured image from The Independent, chart from TradingView.com
