John Paul M. Joaquin Tech 07.04.2022 03:Jul AM EDT

The Twitter, YouTube Accounts of the British Army Have Been Hacked to Promote Crypto Scams

Not even a government online account is truly safe, it seems.

The British Army's YouTube and Twitter accounts have been recently hacked into by cryptocurrency scammers to promote two different cryptocurrency scams, per Endgadget.

The UK's army is aware of the hacking and is currently investigating the situation, per The Guardian.

British Army YouTube And Twitter Hack Facts

The hacking of the British Army's YouTube and Twitter accounts was first reported by Web3 is Going Great, where the publication reports that the two accounts were simultaneously hacked to promote two different cryptocurrency scams.

The British Army's official Twitter account was changed to resemble the "Possessed" NFT Project, which the cybercriminals used to announce a "new NFT collection" and linked to a fake minting website.

This fake minting website also showed a counter that displays the remaining number of available NFTs, which promotes customer agency.

The official Possessed NFT Twitter account mentioned that it is aware of the new scam account and has advised NFT holders to report it and "be careful." However, the advisory came too late many Twitter users who do have Possessed NFTs lost them to the scam promoted in the rebranded Twitter account.

Meanwhile, the British Army's YouTube channel was rebranded to look like ARK Invest, the same investment management firm famous American investor Cathie Wood founded. hackers used the rebranded YouTube channel to live stream fake cryptocurrency advertisements made from an old, real live stream with Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey that has "double your money" Bitcoin and Ethereum scam promotions bordering it.

Is It Possible To Hack Accounts?

Cybercriminals hacking into government accounts is not surprising. Krebs on Security reports that some hackers were found to be selling access to government emails online to impersonate an official.

In this case, the person being impersonated is the handler of the British Army's YouTube and Twitter accounts.

Hackers had also impersonated law enforcement officials in the past when they sent fake emergency data requests to Apple and Meta, granting them access to sensitive information that isn't normally given without the proper procedure.

Additionally, It isn't the first time Musk's appearance was used for cryptocurrency scams. Fake Elon Musk videos promoting cryptocurrency scams have been a problem for YouTube for quite some time now, per Musk's complaint to YouTube.

You may remember that a network of crypto scammers and cybercriminals managed to hack enough YouTube accounts to create dozens of live streams featuring fake crypto ads. To make the hacked channel less suspicious, the hackers change the name and picture of a handful of YouTube channels to make them appear like official Tesla channels.

Musk even called the site "nonstop scam ads" on his official Twitter account in early June. He even reacted positively to memes and criticisms that take a jab at the video-sharing platform's inability to address the scam advertisements.

The British Army's Response

A Brish Army spokesperson mentioned that it is aware of a breach of its YouTube and Twitter accounts and that an investigation is currently ongoing.

The spokesperson also added that the British Army takes information security "extremely seriously" and is resolving the issue. However, the Army wouldn't be able to further comment on the issue until its investigation is complete.