The British Army is currently recovering from embarrassment after it acknowledged on Sunday that its Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked to promote cryptocurrency scams.

The scammer, or scammers, changed the bio of the accounts, as well as the cover photos and profile pictures. At first, on Twitter, the profile picture was replaced to look like a nonfungible token collection called “The Possessed.” The account then offered various NFT giveaways and directed people toward an NFT minting website.

The Twitter account was later renamed “BAPESCAN” and its profile picture was a cartoon monkey. The usual bio included the words “ceremonial duties & regimental events” but was changed to promote cryptocurrency.

“We are aware of a breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is underway,” the Ministry of Defence Press Office tweeted yesterday. “The Army takes information security extremely seriously and is resolving the issue. Until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

The YouTube channel of the army had its account name changed to Ark Invest. Ark Invest is a real investment firm but had nothing to do with the hack. The content that was posted included interviews with Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. founder Jack Dorsey talking about bitcoin at a real event hosted by Ark Invest. These livestreaming events were overlaid by the scammers to contain a promotion to what was a crypto scam. The hackers also deleted all the real content on the channel.

The hack didn’t last long, but long enough for thousands of people to view the YouTube videos and read the Twitter posts. Twitter later confirmed that the British Army’s account had been “compromised” but said the issue was under control.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Commons defense select committee, acknowledged in a tweet that the hack “looks serious.” He added, “I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately.”

This hijacking of an account harkens back to something similar that happened in 2020. Then, the Twitter accounts of high-profile figures such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates were hacked to promote cryptocurrency scams.

Photo: YouTube