[00:00] As a Creator, you invest a lot of time into&nbsp; your content and channel, and we know it can&nbsp;&nbsp; be a stressful situation when your channel&nbsp; is hacked. In this video, we'll walk through&nbsp;&nbsp; actions you can take if you suspect your YouTube&nbsp; channel has been hacked. So how do you know if&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:12] your channel might be compromised? Some potential&nbsp; warning signs include: Changes you or others who&nbsp;&nbsp; access to your channel didn't make: This includes&nbsp; your profile picture, channel name, descriptions,&nbsp;&nbsp; or email settings. Videos uploaded that aren't&nbsp; yours. Unusual messages sent from your email&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:28] account. Or changes to your AdSense for YouTube&nbsp; account. Remember, every YouTube channel is linked&nbsp;&nbsp; to a Google Account. If your channel is hacked,&nbsp; it almost always means that one of the associated&nbsp;&nbsp; Google Accounts has been compromised too. So now,&nbsp; let’s walk through how to recover your channel.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:44] The best way to get personalized, step-by-step&nbsp; help is to start a chat with our hacked channel&nbsp;&nbsp; assistant in the “Recover a hacked YouTube&nbsp; channel” help center article. The chat&nbsp;&nbsp; assistant will walk through these steps to help&nbsp; you recover your channel. The first step is to&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:58] secure your Google Account. If you can still&nbsp; sign into your Google Account, you’ll need to&nbsp;&nbsp; secure it. Immediately change your password to&nbsp; a new, strong one you haven't used before. Then,&nbsp;&nbsp; head to myaccount.google.com/security. Under&nbsp; ‘Devices’ remove any unrecognized sign-in devices.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:14] You should also verify 2 step-verification,&nbsp; passkey, and recovery settings to make sure&nbsp;&nbsp; the hacker hasn’t made edits. If you can’t sign&nbsp; in to your Google account, head to g.co/recover&nbsp;&nbsp; and enter the email address associated with&nbsp; your channel. For the best chance of success,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:28] try doing this from a computer, phone, or tablet&nbsp; you frequently use, on the same browser, and from&nbsp;&nbsp; a location where you usually sign in, like home&nbsp; or work. You'll be asked to verify it's really&nbsp;&nbsp; you – things like your last password or recovery&nbsp; info. Try not to skip these questions; a best&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:44] guess is better than no information. And don't&nbsp; worry, wrong guesses won't lock you out of the&nbsp;&nbsp; recovery process. Once you recover your account,&nbsp; you'll be prompted to reset your password. You&nbsp;&nbsp; should also enable a Passkey. And, if other people&nbsp; help manage your channel, like Channel Managers&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:58] or Editors, let them know that they also need to&nbsp; secure their own Google Accounts following these&nbsp;&nbsp; same steps. We also recommend revoking access&nbsp; until you’re sure their accounts are secured.&nbsp;&nbsp; A compromised manager account can also lead to&nbsp; your channel being hacked. With your channel now&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:12] secured, the next step is to immediately clean up&nbsp; your channel to revert any changes the hacker may&nbsp;&nbsp; have made. Double Check Channel Permissions: Head&nbsp; to YouTube Studio, then settings, then permissions&nbsp;&nbsp; to see who has access to manage your channel.&nbsp; Remove anyone you don't recognize or who shouldn't&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:27] have access anymore. Delete Unauthorized Videos:&nbsp; Delete any videos the hacker uploaded. This helps&nbsp;&nbsp; avoid potential Community Guidelines strikes&nbsp; or copyright strikes against your channel for&nbsp;&nbsp; content you didn't post. Review Video Privacy&nbsp; Settings: Make sure the hacker hasn't made any&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:42] of your private or unlisted videos public. Undo&nbsp; Channel Changes: Check your channel name, banner,&nbsp;&nbsp; profile picture, descriptions, and links and undo&nbsp; any changes the hacker made. If your channel was&nbsp;&nbsp; terminated because of the hacker's actions, don't&nbsp; panic. Once you've recovered your Google Account,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:58] check your email. You should find a notification&nbsp; from YouTube with details explaining that your&nbsp;&nbsp; channel was compromised, and how to appeal the&nbsp; termination. Once your channel is back in your&nbsp;&nbsp; from being hacked again. Scan for malware using&nbsp; antivirus software or ‘Enhanced Safe Browsing’&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:16] on Google Chrome. Make sure you and anyone with&nbsp; access to your channel have strong passwords and&nbsp;&nbsp; 2-Step Verification enabled. Add account recovery&nbsp; options, like a recovery email or phone number.&nbsp;&nbsp; And regularly review your channel permissions and&nbsp; remove anyone who doesn’t need access anymore.&nbsp;
[03:31] For more info on channel security best practices,&nbsp; check out our “Prevent Hijacking” video linked&nbsp;&nbsp; to creating incredible content. If you need&nbsp; more help or want more info on how to protect&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:44] your channel against hijacking, check out the&nbsp; links in the description. Thanks for watching!