YouTube Is Cracking Down on Instructional Hacking Videos

[Tsing]

YouTube is getting serious about banning instructional hacking and phishing content, which the company describes as videos that show users "how to bypass secure computer systems or steal user credentials and personal data." This became apparent to security researcher and educator Kody Kinzie this week when the service prevented him from uploading a July 4th video about launching fireworks over Wi-Fi.

Cybersecurity professionals think this is a dumb policy because a lot of this content holds educational value. Others point out that hacking isn't a "derogatory" term, so its place on an exclusion list doesn't seem quite right. Then there's the lack of specificity as to what content YouTube would actually flag.

"In cybersecurity, we improve our defenses by understanding how attacks actually work," said Erlin. "Theoretical explanations are often not the most effective tools, and forcing content creators onto platforms restricted in distribution, like a paid training course, simply creates roadblocks to the industry. Sharing real world examples brings more people to the industry, rather than creating more criminals."

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I can agree to both sides of this. I'll never forget the time, in my network security class, when the professor showed us a posting to explain both the risks of physical access and what information is readily available out there regarding hacking. It was a post of a teenager, with no login credentials of their own, showing some pretty simple tricks to do a complete run around Windows 7 login to gain administrative privileges. Both disturbing and hilarious.

 

[JacksonSally]

If the app launches but the videos aren't playing, it's because the content is blocked. Most likely, it is banned. According to the general rules, it is forbidden to post pornographic or sexual videos on such channels. Bots, not humans, check videos. Therefore, erroneous blocking is not excluded. This is how YouTube fights these hackers. With the frequency of once in six months, YouTube's servers can experience crashes. Then YouTube doesn't load video files on your phone. The only way to change this situation is to use https://coconvert.com/youtube-mp3-320kbps.html

 

[Uvilla]

Youtube should be making themselves irrelevant, but I guess they aren't. The type of videos I prefer, the algorithms ALWAYS suggest and auto start some other tangentially related crap, from the big media outlets. Its annoying really. Creators make a good job of referring each other so I use that, and that alone, i don't think likes and subscription are working at all for small creators. Is there a way to watch youtube/ others with another algorithm on top? It shouldn't be too hard to make a website or an app that indexes things different, even if it only just then opens YouTube or the other sources as not to piss google or others. But the value would be in having a proper search algorithm that either helps you with your stuff or has no algorithm at all maybe.

 

[rat]

Yeah. Bad move.

The only way to improve security is by continually attacking it.

 

[Brian_B]

I can see where Youtube, as a business entity, wouldn't want to be found liable.