British Army’s Twitter Account and YouTube Channel — Hacked !

British Army tweets about Paksitan invasion

Hackers gained control of the British Army’s Twitter account on Sunday, resulting in a deluge of content offering giveaways and contests where followers could win non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The name of the social media account was altered at least two times, and new profile images were uploaded that included a robot and an ape wearing makeup resembling that of the Batman villain The Joker.

The account’s posts encouraged followers to enter competitions, with winners chosen at random to get NFTs, which are blockchain-stored digital artworks.

As some pointed out, after the initial NFT posts, the hackers decided to amuse themselves by posting random messages like declaring war on Pakistan.

British Army tweets about Paksitan invasion

The YouTube account of the British Army was also infiltrated and replaced by an account called Ark Invest, which promoted multiple livestreams ostensibly showing a cryptocurrency discussion with Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Ark Invest is a large international investing company tied to crypto technologies; however, it is unclear if the company had anything to do with the hack.

The shenanigans on the army’s official Twitter account lasted about half an hour, after which new posts were deleted and the account’s bio was restored. As for the account’s avatar, it remained blank for about an hour longer.

British Army's Twitter account hacked

At 9 p.m. GMT, the account was restored and the social media manager in charge of the British Army’s account apologized to subscribers.

Many on Twitter took the opportunity to drag the UK service, mocking the branch for ever referring to itself as a “responsible cyberpower” – as it does so on its accounts.

Some advised the branch to change its password and enable two-factor authentication, for example, via phone.