Attackers hack into the British Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and post malicious links to compromise people’s crypto wallets. The British Army was able to recover its accounts and announced a full investigation of the case, which is still under progress.
Hackers have been trying various ways to steal people’s digital assets. Recently, Yuga Labs’ Discord servers fell victim to a phishing attack when attackers hacked into an official team member’s Discord account and posted malicious links on the server to scam people and steal NFTs.
As the crypto and NFT industry increases in popularity, more and more scams have been taking place online. Hackers hack into popular accounts with many followers who might trust whatever the account posts and take the opportunity to steal thousands of dollars worth of digital assets in one go.
British Army Twitter and YouTube hacked
The British Army’s account came under the radar of hackers and they hacked into the Twitter and YouTube accounts with the intention to steal the crypto wallet of the followers.
The hackers changed the account to look like an NFT project called “The Possessed.” The display name also changed to “pssssd.” Later, hackers changed the profile picture, header, and display name again to a famous NFT collection “BAPESCLAN” to fool the followers.
They tweeted a malicious link that redirects users to another platform to access their crypto wallets. The hackers also retweeted some scam giveaways accounts.
The YouTube channel changed its name to “Ark Invest” which is a famous company founded by Cathie Wood.
The hackers deleted all the existing videos related to the British Army and posted all the old videos and started a live stream of an old discussion about Bitcoin held by Ark with Elon Musk and other well-known crypto personalities.
The live stream chat had a link pinned so that whoever entered the live stream could click and it would direct them to the malicious website.
The hack was completely planned out and meant to be successful in stealing Bitcoin from the users’ wallets. The crypto winter had already frozen the prices to lower lows, the hack was like rubbing salt into the wound.
British Army restores its social media
Finally, on Monday, the British Army social media team recovered its Twitter and YouTube account. They posted an official statement apologizing to the followers and also updated on investigating the hackers behind the attack.
The British Ministry of Defense shared on Twitter that the team was looking into the case:
“The Army takes information security very seriously, and it wouldn’t be right to say anything else until they finish their investigation.”
As of now, the team has been unable to find the team of hackers. According to Web3 Is Going Just Great blogger, Molly White shared that the hackers who attacked the British Army account followed the same pattern in the past but managed to slip out.
However, these hackers aren’t the only ones hacking into the official accounts. Many scammers have been trying new ways to scam people out of crypto assets.
People who followed the British Army didn’t know the attack would happen on a government official page. Similarly, thousands of viewers who watched the Ark’s fake live stream didn’t know it was old and the links posted were malicious.
How to save yourself from malicious attacks?
Amidst frequent hacks and phishing attacks, the best way to make it out safe is to always be suspicious. Never click on any links whether they are from an official account or a famous influencer’s account.
OpenSea has shared another trick: Check the URL of the link shared. Official accounts never change their URLs, so users should carefully read the spellings and letters of the link before clicking on it.
Self-precautions are always the best way to be safe. You cannot expect companies to always save you from scams, so it is your responsibility to keep your crypto wallet safe from malicious attacks.
