The British Army is investigating “a breach” of its Twitter and YouTube accounts, which on July 3 shared crypto scams and misinformation before being restored
Tuesday, July 05, 2022 // (IG): BB //Weekly Sponsor: Zanes Hand Made (leather works) Marco Lancaster / Gizchina : British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts have been hacked Waivly : UK Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked to promote crypto scams Ryan Browne / CNBC : British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked to promote cryptocurrency scams Ariel Zilber / New York Post : British Army's YouTube, Twitter accounts hacked by crypto scammers Rob Thubron / TechSpot : British Army accounts on Twitter and YouTube hacked by crypto scammers Leigh Mc Gowran / Silicon Republic : British Army regains control of hacked Twitter and YouTube accounts Agne Cimermanaite / Metaverse Post : British Army's Twitter and Youtube accounts hacked to promote NFT projects Oluwapelumi Adejumo / CryptoSlate : Hackers promote crypto on British Army Twitter and YouTube pages Charlie Osborne / ZDNet : The British Army is investigating after its Twitter and YouTube accounts were hijacked Tech Xplore : UK military investigates hacks on Army social media accounts Shazlin Amith / CoinQuora : The British Army's Social Media Accounts Get Hit by Hackers Ryan Morrison / Tech Monitor : British Army Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked by crypto-scammers Mashable : British Army's YouTube and Twitter hacked to promote crypto scams Emma Roth / The Verge : British Army's YouTube and Twitter accounts were hacked to promote crypto scams Simon Sharwood / The Register : British Army Twitter and YouTube feeds hijacked by crypto-promos Bhushan Akolkar / CoinGape : British Army Regains Control Of Their Hacked Social Media Accounts Promoting Crypto Scams Justin Reeve / TheGamer : British Army Twitter Account Hacked, Starts Promoting NFTs And Crypto BGR India : British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts hacked briefly for crypto scam Tweets: @britisharmy : Apologies for the temporary interruption to our feed. We will conduct a full investigation and learn from this incident. Thanks for following us and normal service will now resume. @defencehqpress : The breach of the Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts that occurred earlier today has been resolved and an investigation is underway. The Army takes information security extremely seriously and until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further. Tobias Ellwood MP / @tobias_ellwood : This looks serious. I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately. https://twitter.com/... @malwrhunterteam : Anyhow @BritishArmy's accounts got pwned, it already was good for one thing: to show that Google and Twitter keeps not only not giving a fuck about “random” accounts' getting pwned / taken over by idiots/scammers/etc, but not even about such “important” accounts... https://twitter.com/... Charles Arthur / @charlesarthur : We take information security extremely seriously, after something bad has happened. https://twitter.com/... Tom Nicholas / @tom_nicholas : “Sir, I'm afraid our Twitter account has been hacked and used to post videos about cryptocurrency and NFTs featuring Elon Musk” What a moment that must have been. It's a tragedy we'll never get to see a recording of that conversation. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Tim Hayward / @tim_hayward_ : This is not exactly encouraging in volatile times, especially when the British Army also has its 77th Brigade doing covert strategic communication operations intended to steer public opinion. It was supposed to be our designated adversary who were causing information confusion... https://twitter.com/... Levina / @levinaneythiri : Ummmm #BritishArmy not using 2 factor authentication?🤔 Tweets posted from hacked acct wr funny to say the least. 😃 https://twitter.com/... John Opdenakker / @j_opdenakker : Military grade = weak password without 2FA? 😜 https://twitter.com/... Henry Jones / @hthjones : I can't help but think this apology would have been very different had the temporary ability to impersonate the British Army been used to cause damage or sow confusion, in any of the many ways that could have been done, rather than merely promote an NFT. https://twitter.com/... Iain Overton / @iainoverton : This is pretty serious, really. Surely the Defence of the Realm has to mean more than just tanks and guns. We live in a digital world. For our military to lose control of their Twitter feed strikes as a real failure of their digital capacity. A real one. Especially given this. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Izabella Kaminska / @izakaminska : This is hilarious. The British Army Twitter was hacked not by the Russians but by an NFT scam. Or maybe it's a fabulous double bluff by the Russians? Either way does not give one confidence. https://www.reuters.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The Army breach follows a longer pattern in which crypto giveaway operators exploit trusted social identities: Twitter had already begun locking celebrity impersonators used in giveaway scams, and a 2020 campaign hijacked high-profile accounts rather than merely copying them. The compromise matters because an official military account supplies a stronger appearance of legitimacy than an ordinary scam profile.
The accounts were restored, but the Army has opened an investigation, shifting the immediate issue from content removal to how access to its public communications channels was obtained and controlled.
First-order effects
- The British Army must investigate the July 3 compromise and reassure followers after its Twitter and YouTube channels were used to distribute cryptocurrency and NFT scams.
- Twitter and YouTube had to restore the Army’s official channels after fraudulent posts and misinformation appeared under its identity.
Second-order effects
- Crypto scammers gain from the borrowed authority of institutional accounts, increasing the burden on platforms to distinguish a recovered official account from one still under attacker control.
- The episode reinforces why account-protection measures aimed at crypto impersonation must also address direct takeovers of trusted accounts, as the earlier mass hijacking of prominent Twitter accounts demonstrated.
Third-order effects
- Repeated crypto-scam takeovers point to social-account access becoming a security boundary for public institutions: verification badges or recognizable identities offer little protection once the underlying account is compromised.
- If the pattern persists, platform trust-and-safety systems will be judged not only on scam takedowns but on their ability to protect and rapidly recover high-authority accounts.
The trend: Crypto fraud is increasingly using compromised trusted accounts, turning social-media account security into a core institutional communications risk.