Screenshot of the British Army’s Twitter profile when it was hacked, via the Wayback Machine. Its profile and banner image have been changed to resemble a collection of unusable tokens called “The Possessed.”
A hacker has breached British Army social media accounts to push people into crypto scams.
Army Twitter and YouTube the file was taken over by a hacker, or the hacker – the identity of this person is unknown – on Sunday. The name of the Twitter account has been changed to “pssssd” and its profile picture and banner have been changed to resemble a collection of unusable tokens called “The Possessed”.
Possessed’s official Twitter account warned users about a “newly verified SCAM account” impersonating NFT collections – tokens that represent ownership of pieces of online content.
The previous Sunday, the account had been renamed “Bapesclan” – the name of another NFT collection – while its banner image was changed to a cartoon ape with clown makeup. Hackers also began reposting posts promoting NFT giveaways.
Bapesclan did not immediately respond to a direct message from CNBC on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the UK military’s YouTube account name was changed to “Ark Invest”, the investment company of the UK. Tesla and bitcoin Cathie Wood cow.
The hacker deleted all of the account’s videos and replaced it with live streams of old clips taken from a chat with Elon Musk and co-founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey on Ark-hosted bitcoin in July 2021. Text was added to live streams directing users to crypto scam sites.
Both accounts have since been returned to their rightful owners.
“The Army Twitter and YouTube account breach that occurred earlier today has been resolved and an investigation is underway,” the UK Ministry of Defense posted on Twitter on Monday.
“The military takes information security very seriously and until their investigation is complete, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the British Army’s account “was compromised and has since been locked and secured.”
“The account holders have now regained access and the account is back up and running,” a spokesperson told CNBC by email.
A YouTube representative was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Tobias Ellwood, a British Conservative lawmaker who chairs the defense committee in Parliament, said the breach “seems serious.”
“I hope the results of the investigation and the actions taken will be shared appropriately.”
This is not the first time a popular social media account has been used by hackers to promote crypto scams. In 2020, the Twitter accounts of Musk, President Joe Biden and many others have take over to trick their bitcoin followers.
– Lora Kolodny of CNBC contributed to this report
