Sansad TV YouTube Account Restored, Channel Says Was Compromised Due to Unauthorised Activities by 'Scamsters'

Sansad TV, which broadcasts live proceedings of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, said its YouTube channel was compromised on Tuesday due to unauthorised activities by "some scamsters". The channel was later restored.

"Sansad TV YouTube Channel and live streaming of Sansad TV on YouTube has been restored," the broadcaster tweeted hours after its account on the platform displayed a message that "this account has been terminated for violating YouTube's community guidelines".

Earlier in the day, an official statement said, "YouTube channel of Sansad TV got compromised due to unauthorised activities by some scamsters on February 15 (Tuesday 1am), including live streaming on this channel. Also, the channel's name was changed to "Ethereum" (a cryptocurrency) by the attacker".

Sansad TV's social media team promptly worked on it and got the channel restored by early morning at around 3.45am, the statement said.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-ln), the nodal agency for responding to cyber security incidents in India, also reported the incident and had alerted Sansad TV, it noted.

"However, later on, YouTube has started fixing the security threats permanently and the channel on the platform shall be restored ASAP (as soon as possible)," it added.

Sansad TV issued a very brief statement late in the evening announcing the restoration of its YouTube channel.

Sources aware of the development said once a complaint is raised with YouTube about a channel being compromised, the platform invariably posts such messages but wondered why a message on "community guideline violation" was put out for a channel linked to a parliament.

Sansad TV was created last year by merging Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV.