Porn prankster hijacks Sesame Street YouTube channel
Google takes site down after 20 minutes of smut
By John E Dunn | Techworld | Published: 11:21, 17 October 2011
The child-friendly Internet home of Ernie, Big Bird and Kermit the Frog went X-rate on Sunday as Sesame Street’s YouTube channel was hijacked to serve hardcore porn.
According to security company Sophos, which noticed and took screenshots of the unsavoury event, the porn stayed live on the channel for around 20 minutes before Google itself took issue with the content, suspending it for "repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines."
In the circumstances, the suspension was a blessing in an attack that also saw the show’s YouTube profile altered to display a message that claimed to be by a hacker using the name ‘MrEdxwx’, apparently from the US.
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“Who doesn’t love porn kids? Right! Everyone loves it! Im (sic) Mredxwx and my partner mrsuicider91 are here to bring you many nice content," part of the message read.
Sophos reports that MrEdxwx later uploaded a video denying any involvement with the attack.
"Now, if it really was YouTube user 'MrEdxwx' who hacked the Sesame Street account you would have to suggest he go back to his first day at school, because it would be remarkably silly to leave a message telling the world that he was the perpetrator," said Graham Cluley of Sophos.
Attackers taking over the social media accounts of celebrities or breaking into their websites is a common occurrence; YouTube account hijacks of major brands are much rarer, although Justin Bieber was on the receiving end of one attack in 2010. The root cause in all cases is most likely poor password security.
The warning to other major brands using YouTube has been clearly underlined made once again.
