Is hacking YouTube accounts illegal?

[Michael Kotlan]

One of my favorite YouTubers, BartBaker, just got hacked by some people that call theirselves Clan vv3. His main channel, second channel, and Twitter account were taken over, and all his videos were deleted. Could the people responsible face jail time, or a valid lawsuit? I say this because today, many peoples' main source of income is through YouTube, including BartBaker's. If Google doesn't step in to help him, which they usually don't, he'll have to restart his career practically from scratch.

[David]

Any form of hacking is illegal

[Aaron]

Im pretty sure you will get some jailtime for that...if you get CAUGHT...but its kinda hard to catch a smart hacker

[jed]

It's nearly impossible to catch hackers but it is illegal

[Nunya]

Is it illegal in the US, yes. It it illegal in every country, no. If the person who broke into the account is in a country where it is not illegal, then nothing can be done.

Also, I lay heavy odds it was social engineering, not hacking/cracking.

[Dr.Rorschach]

no its ILLEGAL, u will just get into the jail for 4 years :

[Tony E]

You'll have to refer to Youtube's terms of service. I can guarantee you that hacking accounts is against the website's TOS. But there are a few factors to consider:

1) If Youtube (on behalf of the account owner) would actually press charges. Likely not, as people are hacked on Youtube all the time. It would take some serious fraud or flagrant illegal/detrimental activity for Youtube to actually press charges.

1) These people will most likely never be caught. IF they have half a brain in their heads, they used proxies and things of the like which make it pretty well impossible to actually locate them.

Websites can indeed press legal charges against users who violate their TOS. Gamefaqs sent cease & desist orders to several users who repeatedly violated their terms of service. Myspace sued the woman who bullied a teenage girl in to committing suicide (because cyber-bullying was indeed against their TOS). But these are major cases of TOS violation, and it also counts that these people were able to be located. Even if your friend makes money through Youtube, it would have to be proven that money was actually stolen or tampered with by these hackers, else Youtube likely won't do anything.

[Adam]

yeah hacking is illegal, unless you're the fbi or smth. Anyway, I've heard of some youtubers having recovered the deleted videos and restored their accounts. However, I've also heard of many who had to start anew. Youtube doesn't have a backup cache that stores uploaded videos but maybe a group of famous youtubers could petition for it.
All I have for you is this link: https://support.google.com/youtube/bin/r...=linkissue

[Rise]

Its Illegal And Morally Wrong

[VirtualImagination]

No, of course not, what is this that you speak of?