Viewers were surprised to find the Southern Korean government's official YouTube channel streaming a video featuring SpaceX, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk talking about cryptocurrency.
According to the Yonhap News Agency, the government's official YouTube channel's name was changed to "SpaceX Invest" at 3:30 a.m. It turned out that the channel was hacked.
Access to the YouTube Channel Was Eventually Restored
The official YouTube channel of the South Korea's government was temporarily hacked on September 3, according to the Cointelegraph.
Its name was changed to "SpaceX Invest," and it streamed video of Elon Musk being interviewed by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait during the Qatar Economic Forum.
As per The Business Insider, Musk is talking about how his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, had acquired bitcoin as a "small percentage" of their cash assets, in the interview that was streamed in the channel.
In the video, he is also sharing that his automaker accepts Dogecoin. The said cryptocurrency was boosted by 10% after Musk tweeted about it.
It took three hours before the South Korea's government became aware of the breach. The access to the channel was restored at around 7:20 a.m., said the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as per Yonhap News Agency.
According to the South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the hackers have stolen the YouTube channel's account ID and password.
With around 262,000 subscribers, the channel is being used by the South Korea's government to post videos on government policies, and current events.
As of writing, there is no information yet about the identities and motives of the hackers behind the attack.
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Two Other YouTube Channels Run by South Korea's Government Were Hacked
According to Google, the parent company of YouTube, the South Korea's government channel was indeed hacked on September 3.
Google Korea is currently doing a thorough investigation on the cause and motives of the hacking incident, an official of the company said.
According to The Business Insider, in the last two weeks, this has been the third YouTube account run by South Korea's government that have been hacked.
Earlier this week, the YouTube channel operated by the Korea Tourism Organization, which is under the Tourism Ministry, also suffered a hacking incident.
According to the Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Tourism Organization's YouTube channel suffered two hacking incidents on Thursday, and on Friday. Its operation has been suspended until Sunday.
Korea Tourism Organization has around 509,000 subscribers. According to an official of the agency, when Google detected abnormal connections in the channel, it automatically blocks access to the account.
Aside from the YouTube Channel of Korea Tourism Organization, South Korea's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art channel was also breached on August 29.
Like what happened to South Korea's government channel, it also streamed video about cryptocurrencies. As of writing, there is no information yet if the two hacking incidents are connected to each other.
The three hacking incidents were confirmed by Google, according to The Business Insider. The company said that it would investigate the attacks.
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