Two teenagers have been charged with computer crimes in connection with hacking the YouTube account of a major music video hosting platform last month and replacing its content with pro-Palestinian messages, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Identified only as French citizens Nassim B and Gabriel K.A.B., both 18, the accused hackers were arrested in Paris and charged by prosecutors there with crimes related to tampering with music videos uploaded to YouTube by Vevo, a Times Square-based video hosting company that boosts content created by artists signed to the nation’s largest record labels, said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr.
Using the handles “Prosox” and “Kuroi’ish,” respectively, the hackers allegedly gained unauthorized access to Vevo’s account and subsequently altered the music videos for artists including Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Chris Brown and Shakira, as well as “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, the most-viewed video in YouTube’s history at the time of the hack, Mr. Vance said in a statement.
Several of the affected videos were replaced with footage of masked figures wielding guns accompanied by the words “Free Palestine.” The video for “Despacito,” meanwhile, was briefly deleted from YouTube only days after reaching a record-setting 5 billion views.
Manhattan prosecutors “provided critical investigative support” that culminated in the arrests, continued Mr. Vance, a Democrat, crediting an arrangement with Paris that allows investigators from either city to embed in the other’s office.
“I thank our international partners for their collaboration and extraordinary work on this case, and look forward to more and more investigations benefitting from this type of seamless, cross-border coordination,” said Mr. Vance.
Both teens have been charged with multiple related counts and are due in Paris Criminal Court in October, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported. Both have been accused previously of separate hacking charges but have never been sentenced, a source familiar with the Paris probe told Le Monde.
Each of the teens has been charged by French prosecutors with two counts of fraudulently accessing an automated data processing system; one count of fraudulently modifying data contained in an automated data processing system; fraudulently deleting data contained in an automated data processing system; and hindering an automated data processing system’s normal functioning.
Nassim B, the individual accused of being the hacker known as “Prosox,” also faces a single count of fraudulently extracting data out of an automated data processing system, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
A representative for Vevo told The Washington Times on Saturday that it wouldn’t comment on an active investigation.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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