- The British Army's YouTube and Twitter accounts were hacked on Sunday.
- Hackers posted videos about cryptocurrencies and Elon Musk, and retweeted NFT promotions.
- The British Army has confirmed that their accounts are now secure, and an investigation is ongoing.
The YouTube and Twitter accounts of the British Army were hacked on Sunday with hackers posting about NFTs and sharing a video of Elon Musk.
Hackers changed the name of the Army's Twitter account to "BAPESCAN," a reference to the 'Bored Ape Yacht Club', a non-fungible token (NFT) series.
The hackers also changed the description of the official Twitter account to, "#1 metavesto clan on the ETH chain with multi-billion dollar experience. Powered by @chaintchlabs," according to The Guardian.
At another point during the hack, the British Army's Twitter description read, "We all have a dark side ||| What will yours look like? ||| An nft collection created by @tmw_buidls," as recorded by cached webpage capture website The WayBack Machine.
The account then retweeted a series of promotional tweets related to NFTs, or digital artworks, logged by The WayBack Machine.
As well as disruption to its Twitter, on Sunday the Army's YouTube channel information was changed to the name and logo of Ark Invest, an investment management firm. The firm did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
There is no suggestion that Ark Invest was involved in the hack in any way.
The hacked YouTube account posted several purported interviews with Tesla founder Elon Musk promoting cryptocurrencies, The Guardian reported. A screenshot from Sky News shows a number of videos with titles like "Big News — Ethereum & Bitcoin Will Explode in 2022! ARK Invest with Elon Musk" on the Army YouTube page.
A spokesperson for the British Army confirmed to Insider that an investigation is still ongoing, adding that the social accounts are secure again. As of Monday morning, both accounts appear back to normal, Insider found.
"We take information security extremely seriously and whilst we have now resolved the issue an investigation is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further," the spokesperson said.
Crypto scams have become an increasingly popular outcome of account hacks.
In July 2020, the accounts of several prominent figures including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and musician Kanye West requested cryptocurrency donations after being hacked.
They can often be an effective way of spreading malware and a gateway into accessing more information on the hacking victim's digital footprint, according to the non-profit Identity Theft Research Center.