The British Army faced a breach of its YouTube and Twitter accounts, as confirmed by the Army on Sunday. An investigation is now underway.
The military force’s Twitter account was reportedly hacked, replaced with the name of NFT group Bapesclan with their signature cartoon monkey as a profile picture. The description was changed to “#1 metavesto clan on the ETH chain with multi-billion dollar experience. Powered by @chaintchlabs.”
The hackers also made the account appear to be associated with The Possessed NFT collection, developed by PSSSSD Labs. Several links to NFT giveaways were retweeted.
Credit: Screenshot: Wayback Machine / Twitter
Since, the account has been restored, with all such retweets deleted. The Army account tweeted an apology, saying they will “learn from this incident”.
Meanwhile, the Army YouTube account was replaced with the account name Ark Invest, known to be a global investment firm. There is, however, no indication that said company was behind the breach.
On the YouTube account, The Verge reports, video interviews of Elon Musk talking about crypto were promoted, along with clips of old livestreams by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. These conversations took place last June, in a conference held by Ark Invest. Thousands of viewers reportedly watched the livestreams aired by the hackers. The videos included an overlay which, according to blogger Molly White, directed users to Bitcoin and Ethereum scams.
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PSSSSD Labs, Bapesclan, and Ark Invest have not publicly commented on the scam.
The YouTube channel had been restored, but at the time of writing, it appears the account has been “terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”
Credit: Screenshot: YouTube
The account posted a video yesterday, updating the public on air and land defence, soldiers and army sport. Commenters trolled the post though, with some writing “Great crypto advice” and “Where are my NFT drops”.
The Ministry of Defence Press Office also tweeted about the breach, confirming an investigation underway.
“The Army takes information security extremely seriously and until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the account’s tweet reads.