Microsoft has recovered access to its You Tube channel after it was hacked over the weekend.
On Sunday morning Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos reported that Redmond’s YouTube page had been hacked. All of Microsoft’s videos were taken down and replaced with videos calling on other YouTube users to upload their own or provide sponsorship.
While the material itself is fairly harmless it is still highly embarrassing for Microsoft.
Details of the method used to gain access to the account have not yet been revealed but Cluley suggested it could have been due to a Microsoft employee with administrative rights over the channel being careless with their password.
"It seems unlikely that the change to the YouTube channel is a bizarre publicity stunt by Microsoft. After all, what would be the sense in deleting its archive of past videos – many of which are embedded on third-party sites around the world," he added.
A user posted a message alongside one of the videos that could explain what happened: "This is how he "hacked" the channel: He legittly [sic] made the account Microsoft when YouTube wasn’t that big but the REAL Microsoft probably asked YouTube to disable it and give it to them. The flaw is that this account was probably still linked to this kid’s email and Microsoft forgot to change it or whatever. So all this kid had to do was recover this account using his old email. Not that hard. That’s probably how the other big Channels got "hacked". Thumbs this up so people can see!"
"If that’s true, then it’s a colossal foul-up by YouTube that may concern other well-known brands who have established presences on the video network," added Cluley.
Last week the YouTube channel of Sesame Street was hacked, with videos of hardcore pornography replacing the child-friendly content.
