How to Protect Your YouTube Account From Hackers
If you have amassed decent YouTube subscribers, you may be at risk. Earlier today, hackers managed to capture and erase some of the most popular videos on the site.
Worried that your account might be next? There are several ways to make YouTube more secure before it’s too late. Here’s what you need to know.
The first thing you need to do is set up two-step verification (if you haven’t already ). This way, if someone manages to crack your password, it will still be blocked from your account, unless they somehow gain physical access to your phone. You should also set up your recovery phone number so that if blocked, you can regain access to your YouTube / Google account.
It is also important to have a strong password . Be sure to use a mix of numbers, punctuation and letters in both upper and lower case, or a nice long passphrase. Do not use the same password (or even a similar one) for multiple accounts. Ideally, you should also change your password every few months to stay safe, and get a good password manager to keep yourself safe.
If you share your YouTube page with multiple people, be sure to revoke permissions from everyone who leaves your company or group. And if you’re sticking with the old school and just sharing one password, you’ll want to change it when people leave.
It may also take a little common sense on your part to protect your account. Watch out for phishing emails allegedly sent from Google asking for your account information, and if you ever find yourself redirected to a random login page, check the URL to make sure it’s not a fake page. Two-step verification will protect you from these types of scams in most cases, but you should still avoid them.
If you’re still concerned about the security of your YouTube account, Google has a comprehensive security checklist detailing important best practices. You can also take a look at the Company Security Checkup to make sure you haven’t forgotten something obvious and left yourself unprotected.