Hackers Keep Robbing Cryptocurrency YouTubers (theverge.com)

Hackers are going after YouTubers who make videos about cryptocurrencies. Adrianne Jeffries, reporting for The Verge: Cryptocurrency vlogging has exploded on YouTube over the last two years. In the last 90 days, there were 122,000 videos on cryptocurrency or Bitcoin uploaded to YouTube, garnering 328 million views, according to video analytics platform Tubular Labs. As it turns out, YouTubers are juicy targets for hackers because they share so much information about themselves. They often share their screens as they make trades, which can reveal what apps, usernames, and cryptocurrency addresses they use. They may even tell their followers what systems they use to secure their holdings, which can end up being a blueprint for attackers.

"You have to be very careful about that stuff as a YouTuber," says Peter Saddington, the host of Decentralized TV on YouTube who infamously bought a Lamborghini with his Bitcoin earnings. "In my early days of YouTube, I used to show my trades. I learned that was not a good idea." Saddington was hacked in late 2017.

Comments

The perfect crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, they got "hacked". This is the new excuse isn't it, especially when you don't want to pay taxes on $2M. I agree you shouldn't share too much info on youtube and that may be it, but given the greed of people, I wouldn't be too surprised if they got a bright idea on how to evade taxes.

Crypto Idiots

[charliemerritt03]

Gimme a break! What does it take?
Pump&Dump.com Trustme.org? grrrrrr I guess we should protect the unwashed - bu bu but really

Re:Crypto Idiots

[rmdingler]

you said absolutely nothing

Yes, meanwhile, you were quite not literally poignant in your succinct critique... if only the grandparent could emulate your transcendency.

Re:Crypto Idiots

[arkane1234]

*flips through thesaurus* oh yeah well.. well....

Shocked

[rudy_wayne]

What???

Being an attention whore is a bad idea??

I am shocked. SHOCKED!!!!!

Re:Shocked

[rtb61]

It really is when you buy a Lamborghini with bitcoin revenue probably without declaring it and paying taxes on it, expect the IRS hackers to come a knocking. Perhaps the IRS should be watching more Youtube and checking how many of those YouTube crypto currency experts have declared crypto coin profits in the last 7 bunch of years. I'll bet the majority have not, so not the smartest idea to publicly advertise revenues and every provide video of yourself to make identification so much easier for IRS agents. Especially now, when it looks like the great crypto exchange seize and mine servers fishing expedition for criminal prosecution seems to be in the works. Those people will hack you hard, not to worry, they wont leave you out on the streets, they will provide you with free room and board, even throw in food and clothing, the 'Grey Bar Hotel' I believe it is called. Have not declared you income for years, now would be the time to stop advertising it.

Re:Shocked

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps not everyone in the entire world is a U.S. Citizen, ever considered that?

Re:Shocked

[arkane1234]

Everyone is, they just don't realize it yet.

"Bought Lamborghini"

[110010001000]

Those guys are like rappers. They didn't "buy" anything. They rent the car for their videos.

Re:"Bought Lamborghini"

[110010001000]

Uh huh. I trust business magazines the most.

Re: "Bought Lamborghini"

[Nidi62]

I used to work out with a guy who was a neighbor of lil John. He said every other week he would have a new car in his driveway because he just rotated through short leases.

Re:"Bought Lamborghini"

[o_ferguson]

Being first into a pyramid scam doesn't make you an "early investor."

xkcd had it

[Anonymous Coward]

https://xkcd.com/1977/
Posting your private info to the internet - brilliant

Nobody was robbed

[known_coward_69]

the bits are still there

Just the beginning.

[Gravis Zero]

I think what we'll be seeing in the future is viruses that are completely benign and spread far and wide without doing anything suspicious... until you run a cryptocurrency application of some sort and then it will phone home a copy of the keys. It'll be embedded in documents and application installers, spreading like stuxnet but then you'll suddenly find that POOF! All your money has been transferred elsewhere.

Re: Just the beginning.

[The Conductor]

Some E-Gold users got their accounts vacuumed out multiple times over the course of a few days, leading them to blame insiders at E-Gold. Nope, it was keyloggers and the swiss-cheesy security of WinXP. It got so bad that E-Gold rejiggered their site to make it impossible the enter your password with a keyboard; you had to use a mouse-click keyboard.

Re: Just the beginning.

[pnutjam]

I would imagine e-gold users and uneducated users have extensive overlap.

Of course, there's another reason

[93 Escort Wagon]

"YouTubers are juicy targets for hackers because they share so much information about themselves."

Well, another reason is because many of these YouTube vloggers are not as tech-savvy as they think they are.

Re:Of course, there's another reason

[MerlinTheWizard]

That's right. And anyway, if they vlog that much it's also because they make much more money off youtubing than they do with cryptocurrencies. Especially those constantly trying to analyze trends and show graphs. Those clearly target people interested in trading (read: make quick money), and clearly don't make any money off of trading. That they are robbed is only fair, and also a bit funny.

Remy too

[Rockoon]

Bitcoin Billionaire
Keeping your bling in a digital wallet - brilliant.

Best way to evade taxes

[elcor]

Is to "lose" all your money

Online cryptocurrency traders ..

[najajomo]

Online cryptocurrency traders .. a sucker born every minute