Louis Fonsi’s Despacito was the most watched video on YouTube in 2017.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s music video “Despacito” that has been watched over five billion times on YouTube was hacked by cybercriminals on April 11. The Spanish-language hit, among other famous music videos, disappeared from Google-owned platform on Tuesday, with a pro-Palestine message from the hackers. However, the video was later restored.
“A hacker using the online moniker ‘Kuroi’SH’ claimed responsibility for the breach in a series of tweets, revealing that he also hacked rapper Post Malone and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki,” news.sky.com reported.
The hackers changed the video’s title to “hacked by Kuroi’Sh & Prosox.” “Despacito” was among several other videos reportedly defaced with pro-Palestine messages by hackers. Clips by other artists including Adele, Drake, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Shakira were also hacked into and had the names of their songs replaced with the message “Free Palestine”.
After the incident, a YouTube spokesperson told Billboard, “After seeing unusual upload activity on a handful of VEVO channels, we worked quickly with our partner to disable access while they investigate the issue.”
A screenshot of the hacked music videos. (Source: Twitter)
After the incident, a YouTube spokesperson told Billboard, “After seeing unusual upload activity on a handful of VEVO channels, we worked quickly with our partner to disable access while they investigate the issue.”
“Vevo can confirm that a number of videos in its catalogue were subject to a security breach today, which has now been contained,” Vevo said in a statement. “We are working to reinstate all videos affected and our catalogue to be restored to full working order. We are continuing to investigate the source of the breach.”
A Twitter account that is being speculated to belong to the hacker, posted a cryptic tweet saying, “@Vevo You have all my respect but do not leave the control to your site to any developer did not take into account this hacking it was a fun if we would like to harm your customers we would delete all the video but I did not delete despacito must believe me.”
“@YouTube Its just for fun i just use script “youtube-change-title-video” and i write “hacked” don t judge me i love youtube,” the account added.
(with inputs from IANS)