Account Security - YouTube Guide for Beginners

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Once your channel starts gaining some attention, it's time to start protecting your accounts, and backing up your information.


YouTube - 2 Step Verification
Google offers a service known as "2-Step Verification", which puts your account under a security system that goes through 2 stages.

Stage 1 - Enter your account password. Easy enough for a hacker, right?
Stage 2 - Phone Verification. Not so easy.

This is considered to be the best way to protect your YouTube account, and is pretty much a 'must have' for any serious content creator. It's as simple as going to this link, setting it up with your phone number, backup number and then receiving and verifying a code to activate it on your account. Simple.

Account Password
It's pretty obvious that you want a secure account password. Personally, I try to mix n match things that aren't related to myself, my channels content or any information that may be available through my accounts. As an example, you can combine a love of drawing, your favourite memory and the year you were born to create a unique yet difficult password to guess. I would probably get something like shadedfishing96.

"A good password should be at least 15 characters long, and with big and small letters, numbers and special letters"- TommyTLG

I don't think a lot of people would jump to that conclusion, especially if your channels content is completely different, such as a Gaming or Tutorials. It's also best not to have a password that contains your channels name and/or URL, as these are relatively easy to guess and will most likely result in you losing a lot of your hard work.

Brainstorm a bit, make sure that whatever you choose is something you're also going to remember. If you don't think you can, write it down on a piece of paper and keep it close, even hide it with your secret stash of chocolate.

Social Media Accounts
Facebook and Twitter provide their very own form of Two-Step Verifcation, both platforms use a Mobile Verification System and provide your Social Media accounts with another level of security support. I've signed up for both, and I can assure you they're just as effective as Google's Version. See more about the two below.

Facebook - Two Factor Verification

Twitter - Login Verification

Backing Up Your Information
As mentioned above, it's best to write down all your passwords on a piece of paper. Digital copies stored in Notepad, Word or even Google Drive can easily be accessed through simple viruses. As a smaller channel, it's very unlikely someone will resort to these tactics to gain access to your account, but it's better to be safe then sorry. It's important to have reliable Anti-Virus software on your computer to prevent any viruses, keylogs etc gaining access to your computer and it's files.

Yes, it is possible for someone to gain access to your computer through a virus. I've had it happen to me, and it's not pleasant when someone shares your search history on the internet. Okay, let's leave it at that..

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By using this information, you'll be safe in saying that your account/s are protected. As a quick re-cap, complicated passwords, 2-step verification and written backups are your best bet for total account security.

Hopefully this guide will help you keep your accounts secure, and make sure that nothing fishy is going on when you're not around.

Thanks for reading, and happy YouTubing!
-Faptain.
 
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Very useful information. I used to have two step verification enabled but then I got tired of entering my phone number on every device.
 
Nice guide, and something all channels should use :)
A good password should be at least 15 characters long, and with big and small letters, numbers and special letters ^^
 
Don't forget that adding symbols when you can increases security. Encrypted passwords can still be decrypted, adding stuff like !@#$%^&*() or any ASCII symbols (avoid extended ASCII) can cause any decryption software a hacker might be using to take years sometimes up to a decade to crack a code. This is usually assuming they aren't THAT skilled. At the end of the day though, if someone wants to hack your stuff, they can get in no matter how secure. Google's security should be fairly good which worries me when I hear other people are being hacked, I can only assume they are using terrible passwords or Google somehow isn't being as secure.
 
AndrewReviewYou said:
Don't forget that adding symbols when you can increases security. Encrypted passwords can still be decrypted, adding stuff like !@#$%^&*() or any ASCII symbols (avoid extended ASCII) can cause any decryption software a hacker might be using to take years sometimes up to a decade to crack a code. This is usually assuming they aren't THAT skilled. At the end of the day though, if someone wants to hack your stuff, they can get in no matter how secure. Google's security should be fairly good which worries me when I hear other people are being hacked, I can only assume they are using terrible passwords or Google somehow isn't being as secure.
Click to expand...
I saw that one of the members thought he was being hacked and changed all his passwords, when I asked he said (not directly) that he didn't have 2-Step Verification enabled at the time..

So I'll assume that most people are only using their passwords as security.
 
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