How to Protect Your YouTube Channel from Hacking
1. Don’t click on suspicious links
Very tempting offers can come from fake advertisers in the mail. You will be offered profitable barter, cooperation for a lot of money, and much, much more. Pay close attention to which links and attachments are attached to these messages. When you navigate through them, you can “catch” a virus that will instantly copy all your passwords! Be extremely careful. Fake links can be very similar to real ones. You may not notice the substitutions of one letter or number in a familiar website address. Google teaches you how to recognize phishing emails here.
2. Pay attention to the password
Create a secure password. It must be fairly complex and contain at least eight characters. These can be letters, numbers, and other signs. Each account needs a unique password. Do not use the same key on multiple sites so that attackers cannot access all of your accounts at once.
Do not use personal data (your date of birth or dog’s name) or frequently used words as a password. And completely forget about simple combinations of characters like “1234” or “qwerty.”
3. Protect your credentials
Remember, YouTube employees never ask for passwords or financial data over the phone, through emails, or google forms. You can only store this data. You should not enter your passwords on sites with unsecured connections. Do not enter passwords when you are connected to public Wi-Fi: it is so easy to intercept them.
Install Password Protector in your browser. If your password is used on sites not owned by Google, you will receive a notification. You can save your passwords in a special manager. You don’t have to remember them every time and re-enter them: the service itself will prompt you for the desired option.
4. Check your account security regularly
Make sure that the methods for restoring access are up-to-date. When you change your phone number or email address, update them in your account. Why this is important: it is with the help of backup data that you can receive a message about suspicious activity on your account, block access for strangers or restore access to your account.
Set up 2-Step Verification. To enter your account, in addition to your password, you will need to enter an additional security key. You can choose which one for yourself. Google offers an electronic key, a notification from Google to your phone, or the Google Authenticator app (with which you can restore access to your account even without the Internet).
Unlink sites and applications that you do not use. Often, to create an account, an application requests access to a Google account. Remember to disconnect from services you no longer use.
5. Control the channel access settings
Several people can manage the channel at once. It is better not to distribute this level of access to the left and to the right. You risk losing the channel in a matter of minutes. If, nevertheless, it is necessary to give one of the trusted persons the rights to manage the channel, make sure that the position of others is never higher than the Administrator.
A channel can have several co-owners. In such cases, it is better to secure the agreement legally. YouTube does not provide the ability to designate more than one primary owner and does not intervene in third-party disputes.
What to do if your YouTube channel is hacked
If you have access to your account, pass the security check. You will receive a notification on your phone or backup email, and you can confirm that the account belongs to you.
If you do not have access to your account, you will have to contact technical support. It is best to use the device and browser you used to log into your account most often.
Next, you will need to confirm that the account is actually yours. The system may ask you to enter the current password. If you don’t remember it, enter the previous one. The fresher the password, the better.
Do not forget to indicate the reason why you contact technical support to restore access. Specify in your application that you are traveling, receive messages from the security system, or cannot remember your password. If your data matches the technical support information, it will be much easier to restore your account.
The procedure for restoring access to your account may take at least several days. During this time, attackers violating the YouTube policy can provoke channel blocking. In this case, you need to return your account as soon as possible. Therefore, large channels trust their security to MCN networks. The official YouTube partners can quickly contact the platform office directly, which significantly speeds up the “rescue” of the channel.
