If you just noticed strange activity on your YouTube channel or can’t even log in, don’t start worrying. Hackers are not sleeping and can target anyone!
In this article I will explain how to recover hacked or compromised YouTube channel and provide you with some tips on how to avoid from being hacked.
Let’s get started!
How to know if your channel got hacked or compromised?
Knowing that your Google account or YouTube channel is simple. If you no longer can login to your YouTube channel because your password doesn’t fit anymore, it means that you have been hacked. Unless you are typing in the wrong password.
However, if your YouTube channel got compromised, then you will still be able to login. However, if you find that your videos have been deleted or noticed any other strange activity on your account, it means that someone has access to it.
To make sure, you can just login to your Gmail account and view your Last activity details. Your YouTube channel is associated with your Gmail account, so you will see all the login history there.
To do that, just login to your Gmail account and scroll down. On the right bottom corner click on “Details” to views last account activity. Here you will see all the logins to your Google account with IPs, devices and locations.
If you don’t recognize some of the activities, it means that your Google account and YouTube channel are in danger.
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How to recover hacked or compromised YouTube channel?
Whether you are still able to login or unable to do that, you will need to secure your Google account. You can do this if someone has changed your account’s phone number or e-mail, deleted your account or other reasons. Resetting your password won’t be enough because if hacker knows your password, it means that he already has access to your Gmail account too.
You need to go to account recovery page, provide all the necessary information, answer security questions and take further steps from there. Then you will need to review activity of your channel and you will be able to secure your account.
After that, you will need to reset your password when prompted. Make sure to choose another password that you haven’t used before and make sure it is strong (include capital letters, special characters, numbers, etc.).
If there are any more questions, just follow the official YouTube answer to this matter by clicking here.
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How to avoid from being hacked?
You can make your YouTube channel more secure easily. Several tweaks may improve your channel’s security tremendously.
To make your YouTube channel more secure:
Firstly, you will need to enable 2-step verification. To do that, just go to your Google account’s settings and head to Security tab. You will be able to add 2-step verification there to make sure that you get back to your account easily in the future (in case your account or channel gets hacked).
Secondly, make sure not to click on unknown links, as these can contain viruses and malware which can disclose your login credentials to fraudsters.
Thirdly, always make sure to use safe and strong password. Strong passwords mainly consist of different (uppercase and lowercase) letters, numbers and special symbols. Also, you should make your password as long as possible, as long passwords are harder to guess.
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I hope that now you will be able to recover your hacked or compromised YouTube channel. Also, you will know how to avoid from being hacked.
If you have any questions related to this topic, leave a comment below!