On July 3, hackers gained access to the official Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts of the British Army and advertised fraudulent non-fungible token (NFT) collecting and cryptocurrency scams for over four hours.
Just after 2 PM ET, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Press Office of the United Kingdom tweeted that it was aware that the Army’s social media accounts had been hijacked and that an inquiry had been launched.
British Army regained the accounts in four hours
Around 5:45 PM ET, nearly four hours later, the Office published an update stating that the account breaches had been fixed. The official Twitter account for the British Army expressed regret for the tweets and promised to look into the matter and “learn from this mistake.”
Users have shared pictures of the British Army’s official Twitter account, revealing that the hackers are promoting at least two bogus NFT collection versions dubbed “The Possessed” and “BAPESCLAN.”
T the hackers are seen pinning a tweet to a phony mint of The Possessed NFT collection. This tweet contains a phishing link, which, if clicked on, would drain users’ cryptocurrency wallets of their assets. One of the collection’s authors, Tom Watson, alerted his followers to the false material and requested that they report it.
The hackers posted live stream videos of fictitious interviews with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk on YouTube under the renamed account that resembled the Cathie Wood-founded investment company Ark Invest. These videos attracted thousands of viewers.
How the assault was carried out, who was behind it, and how many individuals may have been duped by the phishing and scam links are all unclear at this time. The British Army has subsequently removed all of the links, tweets, and related content from the compromised accounts.