Hackers launched an attack on Vevo this morning, taking down its YouTube channel and some of the most popular music videos of all time. Among the videos to disappear include Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” the most popular music video of all time.
The music video for “Despacito” was defaced, with a its thumbnail being replaced with an image of masked individuals pointing guns (and a camera) at an individual. The image is from Netflix’s show Casa de Papel. Along with the defacing of the thumbnail, the description of the video was altered, crediting hackers calling themselves Prosox and Kuroi’sh.
Other music artists whose videos were defaced include Shakira, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Drake, Selena Gomez and DJ Snake.
At the moment, it’s not entirely clear if the hackers gained control of the music videos by taking control of the music artist’s accounts or managed to gain access to the accounts through a Vevo account exploit. According to Vevo, the exploit has since been contained.
“Vevo can confirm that a number of videos in its catalogue were subject to a security breach today, which has now been contained,” stated a Vevo spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We are working to reinstate all videos affected and our catalogue to be restored to full working order. We are continuing to investigate the source of the breach.”
Even though the breach has been contained, some of the videos affected are still down or marked with the hacker’s description.
