Google nukes 3,000 YouTube videos that sowed malware disguised as cracked software

Google has taken down thousands of YouTube videos that were quietly spreading password-stealing malware disguised as cracked software and game cheats. Researchers at Check Point say the so-called "YouTube Ghost Network" hijacked and weaponized legitimate YouTube accounts to post tutorial videos that promised free copies of …

[Scotthva5]

Google took 4 years to find this?

Slow down there Turbo you're making me dizzy.

[Joe W]

Re: Google took 4 years to find this?

No. It took four years of people shouting at Google. They did not miracolously find it all of a sudden. They just don't care. Same with scammy ads. They don't care as long as they get paid. I wish them parody in minecraft and a happy friendship day.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: Google took 4 years to find this?

Meanwhile, I upload a 25 minute video which happens to have about 20 seconds of a "Cure" song playing in the background, and the video is blocked until I blank out the offending piece.

[Grogan]

Re: Google took 4 years to find this?

Crap like that (sabotaging, monetizing my videos without my consent, marking video game nudity as "adult content") is the reason I stopped posting videos to youtube. If I want to post a video I host it on my own web server where I control everything. It's in Canada, as am I, and subject only to Canadian law, too.

[JessicaRabbit]

Doesn't seem like there's much hope of actually stopping this since they'll just keep creating new accounts and more content (plus now with added AI slop). On the other hand the victims are freetards and cheaters so fuck 'em.

[Joe W]

Ehm... well....

I totally agree with the first half of your comment. The second half reeks of "couldn't happen to me, 'cause I'm not stoopid / greedy / dumb". It can happen to anybody. Maybe not in that form. Maybe not by this delivery mechanism. While I sort of agree that not being greedy to get whatever software they promised should be the right thing, I'd look at the price tag for rent said programs. Some are ridicolously expensive, even for a student or academia license - which needs to be renewed annually, becasue we no longer buy software.

[IGotOut]

And...

...the scam ads? The fake claims companies, the crypto scammers, the "the government doesn't want you to know about this amazing device", the "Designed by ex NASA / Special Ops", deep fakes of famous and trusted people and on and on....

Oh I forgot, you get money for those. You are only slightly interested in scams that cost you money.

Scumbags, all of them.

[VoiceOfTruth]

I applaud taking down these videos, but...

I occasionally see very obviously fake ADVERTS on YouTube. I took a screenshot of an advert for a SanDisk device which does not exist. At least the item is nowhere to be found on SanDisk's web site, nor on Amazon. I had a tentative try to contact SanDisk, but as they make it all but impossible to actually contact them and not go through hoops for things, I gave up.

Meanwhile somebody is presumably paying YouTube for these fake adverts.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: I applaud taking down these videos, but...

I've reported 2 obvious fakes in the last few months, and in both occasions, I got a reply after a few days saying "this advert doesn't breach our terms and conditions"

So. they are admitting they collude with fraudsters...

And as for the android advert with an AI Martin Lewis and a fake BBC site promoting some crypto nonsense ("Trader AI" - https://www.fca.org.uk/news/warnings/trader-ai), that didn't even have a reporting link.

[Anonymous Coward]

One word for you, "U-Block". Kills 99% of all known adverts dead!

[MiguelC]

Actually it's two words:

"uBlock Origin"

[Gene Cash]

One word: yt-dlp

Kills 100% of ads dead, plus you get a copy to keep for when (not if) the original disappears

Another advantage is you get to use a real video player like mpv or vlc, instead of the single-cheek browser player

Downside is you do need to spend time waiting for the download

[John Brown (no body)]

I use Tartube these days. It's a wrapper around yt-dlp with the added advantage you can "subscribe" to channels and get all the latest videos from the channels you want to follow. Personally, I set to not download the video and use the "watch on Youtube" options (UBlock Origin FTW as above). To help support[*] the YouTubers, I'll often "watch" them twice. Once with adblocker and then again, later, on a different PC without an ad-blocker where I can leave the headphones in but not wearing them so as not to be disturbed and any monitoring YT do will think I'm actually watching it, just keeping half and eye on it so I can click the next one when it finishes.

* Apparently under the new YT rules, ad-blocked "views" are no longer counted, especially where it might mean some paltry amount of money being passed on the the creator.

[parrot]

Dubious disguised as dubious.

[Wolfclaw]

Now to delete all the scam adverts, ah thats right, thats your profits from a corrupt scum company !

[JWLong]

GooGle (YouTube)

Has managed to go from "Do No Evil", to being the "OutHouse of the Internet".

And, people still use it!

[Gene Cash]

Re: GooGle (YouTube)

At the moment, it's still marginally the best results if you ignore the AI crap.

I did use bing & ddg for a week each, and they were meh.

[steviebuk]

Shame

They can't get rid of the bot posts, the clearly fake, even criminal adverts and all the "traveller" fighting videos.

Yet I do some vids on using yt-dlp and they tell me off and make me remove them.

Cunts.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: Shame

Next time, you need to change your wording:

"This yt-dlp is the app that the government tried to ban. It will halve your energy usage, and the energy companies hate us for telling you about it. It's also so powerful, the army wants to ban it, and your ISP hates it because it triples the speed of your internet connection"

They seem to like videos worded like that.