The British Army has a strong social media presence, with over 360,000 followers on Twitter and approximately 178,000 on YouTube. The full impact of this hacking incident on the British Army and its followers remains unclear at this time. The British Army and the UK’s Ministry of Defence have revealed that an investigation into the incident is underway.
Army’s Twitter Profile Changed to Popular NFT Collections
Hackers successfully took over the UK Army’s Twitter account on Sunday, retweeting posts about NFT giveaway schemes. But the Army regained control soon after. The hackers had changed the Army’s Twitter account name, profile picture, and banner picture to mimic the page of the popular NFT collection, The Possessed. Prior to that, the threat actors sought to imitate the page of another NFT collection, Bapeclan. The Possessed had sent out a tweet from its official account on Saturday, warning its users about a similar scam.
YouTube Channel Name Changed to “Ark Invest”
The hackers also used the British Army’s official YouTube channel to carry out crypto scams. They changed the channel’s name to Ark Invest, an investment firm headed by Cathie Wood. The hackers took down all the British Army’s videos and uploaded clips from an old live stream of a conversation between business magnate Elon Musk and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The description boxes of these videos contained links to malicious websites promoting crypto scams. The UK Ministry of Defence has said it is taking the incident seriously. “We are aware of a breach of the army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is underway,” an army spokesperson told The Guardian. “We take information security extremely seriously and are resolving the issue. Until the investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Concerns Raised Over Account Takeover
The takeover of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts has raised alarm bells in the UK. Tobias Ellwood, Member of Parliament and Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, took to Twitter to express his concern. “This looks serious. I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately,” Ellwood tweeted. This is not the first cyber incident targeting the British Army in recent months. In April, the Army’s recruitment portal was breached, forcing authorities to shut it down temporarily. The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies and NFTs has led to a staggering rise in targeted scams. Cybercriminals are coming up with innovative ways to conduct phishing attacks. Hacking into Twitter accounts to share malicious links has become more common than ever. In May 2022, hackers took over NFT artist Beeple’s Twitter account to share phishing links and scam his followers. Malicious actors have also targeted heads of state and government officials. Late last year, hackers took over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account and sent out a fraudulent tweet claiming that India had adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender. As crypto scams continue to rise, it is important to be aware of what malicious actors are up to. We recommend reading our article on the top cryptocurrency scams to avoid in 2022, and our article on how to avoid NFT scams.
