Operation BizTube Break-In

Operation BizTube Break-In was a series of trolling attacks on “professionally-oriented” YouTube clone BizTube between 2014-15, coordinated on YTMND and other sites. The “break-in” was caused by poor security and checks on BizTube’s account creation system, as well as poor moderation.

Background
BizTube was created in January 2013 as an alternative for YouTube solely for business users. The site mainly served as a means to share PowerPoint presentations and employee training videos. To register an account, a business registration and legal ID were required.

In March 2014, YTMND user “NotTheUnabomber” discovered BizTube. Despite the restrictions on new accounts, designed to keep the site for business use only, he managed to sign up using a blatantly fake MSPaint driver’s license for a nonexistent US state known as “New Caulde”, as well as a scan of an IRS tax form with “BIZNES REGUSTRAYSHUN” written on it in Sharpie. He published his findings in a YTMND known as “BizTube.biz fails at moderation”, which became extremely popular.

From there, the “break-in” started. Even when moderation was rarely enforced, BizTube had no system to handle IP-bans, so sockpuppet accounts could quickly be made. BizTube was flooded with joke PowerPoints and videos.

The “break-in” continued until June 2015, when BizTube shut down, with a message on the front page reading: "Due to circumstances beyond our control, BizTube.biz has shut down effective immediately. We apologize for the inconvenience."

In May 2018, a site called “iTube” was launched, which was found to be nearly-identical to BizTube, except with a less strict registration policy, only needing an existing Google or Facebook account. The creator confirmed that they were the same person behind BizTube, saying in a blog post: "Yes, this is the reincarnation of BizTube. The YTMNDers can do whatever they want here, without having to even forge an ID."

iTube is still active today.