Twitter and YouTube accounts of the British Army were hacked for a brief moment and were used to post about cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. The army on Sunday said it regained control of the accounts and has ordered an investigation.
“Apologies for the temporary interruption to our feed. We will conduct a full investigation and learn from this incident,” British Army said in its Twitter handle.
The army’s YouTube account was renamed ‘Ark Invest’ where several videos on cryptocurrency were shown.
While the Twitter feed retweeted several posts related to Non Fungible Tokens — a unique digital item, often a piece of virtual art, that works as an investment.
The Twitter account’s name was also changed to Bapesclan, accompanied by a profile picture featuring an ape-like cartoon figure with make-up mimicking a clown.
Its Twitter feed currently has 362,000 followers, while the YouTube channel has 177,000 subscribers.
It is not clear who is behind the hacking incidents, but the army said it was taking information security “extremely seriously” and was resolving the issue.
“Whilst we have now resolved the issue an investigation is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further,” An army spokesperson told BBC.
Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the Commons defence select committee, said what had happened “looks serious”.
“I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately,” he added in a tweet.
Notably, this is not the first time that a high-profile account has been targeted on Twitter.
In July 2020, major US accounts were hacked in a Bitcoin scam.
Those accounts affected included Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West.
(With inputs from agencies)
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