Elon Musk Video Plays On South Korean Government's Hacked YouTube Channel

Zinger Key Points
  • The video clip was excerpted from an old interview that Musk gave to Bloomberg News. 
  • The South Korea tourism department's YouTube channel was breached twice last week.

South Korea-based Yonhap News Agency reported the government's official YouTube channel was hacked on Saturday. 

What Happened: The news agency stated that at around 3:30 a.m. the YouTube channel was hacked and its name was switched to "SpaceX Invest." 

Later it broadcasted a video featuring billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk talking about cryptocurrency. 

According to a screenshot posted by the news agency, the video clip was excerpted from an old interview that Musk gave to Bloomberg News. 

In the video, Musk was shown talking about how his companies had bought Bitcoin BTC/USD as a "small percentage" of their cash assets and said his automaker accepts Dogecoin DOGE/USD

The agency reported that an official in the government's culture and tourism ministry manages the YouTube account became aware of the situation at 6 a.m., took security measures, and restored the account at 7:20 a.m. 

Also Read: Elon Musk's Ex-Girlfriend Grimes Says Mark Zuckerberg 'Wildly Under Qualified' To Run Metaverse

The official said the YouTube account's ID and password were suspected of being stolen.

Later, Google confirmed that the channel had been hacked. The Google Korea office is investigating the cause of the incident.

South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo's Lee Jian has reported the YouTube channel has around 262,000 subscribers and actively posts videos on government policies and current events. 

It's the third YouTube account run by South Korea's government to have been compromised in the last two weeks.

The tourism department's YouTube channel was breached twice, once on Thursday and once on Friday, and was suspended until Sunday, JoongAng Ilbo reported.

Photo courtesy of Tesla. 

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