This Sunday, the British military’s social networks were hacked to spread phishing links. While the attackers renamed the Twitter account to pass it off as an NFT project, the YouTube channel was changed to look like that of investment fund Ark Invest.
British Army Twitter and YouTube Post Phishing Links
On Sunday, both the Twitter account and YouTube channel of the british army were hacked and spread scams by attempted phishing† While the situation has since returned to normal on Twitter, the military opened an investigation and apologized:
Sorry for the temporary interruption of our feed. We will conduct a full investigation and learn from this incident. Thank you for following us and normal service is now resuming.
— British Army 🇬🇧 (@BritishArmy) July 3, 2022
For several hours, the British army’s Twitter account has actually been renamed to mimic different collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). For example, we can quote The Possessed collection, which just launched on OpenSea:
Tea @British Army has been compromised and is currently used to shill NFTs.
Previous archive of the Twitter profile: https://t.co/dQmlxlY5l8 pic.twitter.com/gifpsOy000
— vx-underground (@vxunderground) July 3, 2022
We don’t know to what extent people have fallen into the trap. The fact is, it’s a safe bet that the various links published led to: authorize a malicious smart contract†
As for YouTube, the hackers went even further. The latter have indeed remodeled the chain in such a way that it resembles that of Ark Invest, Cathie Wood’s investment fund. Videos were then broadcast live to show suppose Elon Musk conducts interviews †
Meanwhile, on YouTube, the British Army account has been renamed ARK Invest and has been used to play that fake “double your money” Bitcoin/Ether scam with the Elon Musk/Jack Dorsey videos. pic.twitter.com/ovgNghr2Zb
— web3 is just going great (@web3isgreat) July 3, 2022
Spectators were then redirected to QR codes to participate in a so-called giveaway† This scam attempt, common in our ecosystem, claims that if we send an amount of BTC or ETH to a particular address, double it will be sent back to us.
👉 To continue – Find our guide to best practices to mitigate the risk of hacking
Explore Ledger Wallets
Phishing in cryptos
While the British military’s involvement is surprising to say the least, phishing attempts are common in our ecosystem† Last May, artist Beeple also fell victim to a similar hack. This had resulted in over $400,000 being stolen.
On the other hand, there are more or less convincing email phishing attempts. For example, the attacker will try to trick his target into believing that his MetaMask wallet needs to be restored. Whatever form this scam takes, the goal remains theft of cryptocurrencies† Unfortunately, only vigilance will prevent you from being fooled.
The British Army YouTube channel has not yet been restored at the time of writing. The Ministry of Defense, for its part, has also not communicated about some progress in research†
👉 Also in the news – Ankr hack: RPC gateways to Polygon (MATIC) and Fantom (FTM) compromised?
Order our book
published by editions larousse
Newsletter
Get a crypto news feed every Sunday 👌 And that’s it.
What you need to know about affiliate links. This page presents assets, products or services related to investments. Some links in this article are affiliated. This means that if you buy a product or register on a site from this article, our partner pays us a commission. This allows us to continue to offer you original and useful content. There is no impact on you and you can even get a bonus by using our links.
Investing in cryptocurrencies is risky. Cryptoast is not responsible for the quality of the products or services presented on this page and cannot be held responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused by the use of any good or service mentioned in this article. Investments related to crypto assets are risky in nature, readers should do their own research before taking any action and only invest within the limits of their financial capabilities. This article is not investment advice.
I timidly discovered the world of blockchain at the end of 2018 during my quest for financial freedom. Initially moderately invested, it was only two years later that I took the risk to bet everything on the movement that was taking shape at the time. Then I dedicate 2021 to training myself better to gain more knowledge and seriousness. As I often say, I still have a billion things to learn. And what I do know, I want to share with you.
Vincent Mayor
195 articles