News

Topline The British Army said Sunday afternoon it has launched an investigation into a breach of its Twitter and YouTube accounts hours earlier, which led to the military branch’s accounts being used to post about nonfungible tokens and cryptocurrency.

Soldiers of The 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment brave the snow as they march through the … [+]e streets of Blackburn following a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan on December 1, 2010 in Blackburn, England.

Key Facts The British Army’s official Twitter account had retweeted posts promoting NFTs, according to Reuters, while videos about cryptocurrency featuring billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk were uploaded to its YouTube account Sunday, the BBC said.

All NFT and crypto content had been removed from both accounts by Sunday afternoon.A spokesperson told The Guardian the British Army takes “information security extremely seriously and [is]

resolving the issue,” and did not offer any further comment until the military wraps up an investigation into the breach.

It’s still unclear who is behind the breach.

Key Background NFTs and cryptocurrency have exploded in popularity over the past few years, but experts have warned that an influx of scams are targeting those who aren’t familiar with the new industries. A report by Atlas VPN found that more than $1.3 billion worth of crypto was stolen just in the first four months of 2022. The digital artist Beeple–whose record-breaking $69.3 million NFT helped kick off the craze last year–was the target of a Twitter hacking last month that led to his followers losing $438,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs in a scam. In 2020, Twitter accounts belonging to Musk, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian and other well-known figures were breached to promote an apparent bitcoin scam.