Google’s YouTube Hacked

Google Admits To YouTube Being Hacked

Google’s YouTube was attacked on Sunday, as hackers exploited a vulnerability in the sites’ XSS (cross-site scripting) to manipulate links and displayed information in the user comment areas of pages.

Although the attack couldn’t be used to access users’ Google accounts, it did represent a potential risk to the cookies of those users who had visited affected pages. A Google spokeswoman did however recommend that users sign out of their account, then sign back in again.

The attacks appear to have been focused on teenage singer Justin Beiber (understandable really), who’s featured YouTube pages contained offensive messages directed at the star, as well as links to external adult sites. The messages were displayed for some time before the attack was noticed and put right by Google technicians

We released a complete fix for the issue around two hours after becoming aware of the problem. We also temporarily removed comments on affected pages within on hour

Said the Google spokeswoman, going on to reassure users this shouldn’t happen again

We are studying the vulnerability and aim to prevent future similar attacks

YouTube is one of the largest user-generated content sites in the World, the most popular video site and the second largest search engine.

Apple iTunes App Store Also Possibly Attacked

There’s been a huge amount of comments and threads via social media sites suggesting that Apple’s iTunes was also attacked, apparantly by a single developer. According to user reports, purchases have been made using credit card details stored on the Apple database. Many users were advising that you check your billing statement carefully and look for any suspicious activity on their account. If you do find purchases have been made that you didn’t authorise, get in touch with iTunes customer services immediately.