British officials have launched an investigation after hackers took control of the armed forces Twitter and YouTube accounts, the ministry of defence announced Sunday.
“We are aware of a breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is underway,” said a ministry statement.
“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.”
We are aware of a breach of the Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is underway.
The Army takes information security extremely seriously and is resolving the issue. Until their investigation is complete it would be inappropriate to comment further.
— Ministry of Defence Press Office (@DefenceHQPress) July 3, 2022
So long as the investigation was not completed, it would not be appropriate to comment further, the statement added.
Videos on cryptocurrency and images of billionaire businessman Elon Musk appeared on the army’s YouTube account, while its Twitter account retweeted a number of messages that appeared to be related to NFT, or non-fungible tokens.
NFTs are tokens linked to digital images, collectable items, avatars in games or objects in the burgeoning virtual world of the metaverse that can trade for large sums of money.
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They are authenticated using blockchain, the technology that is the basis for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
New registration laws for the UK
The idea echoes the 1938 US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires Americans and non-Americans alike to disclose if they are working on behalf of foreign governments, register with the US Department of Justice and report on their own activities.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News: “We are looking at additional powers to look at the activities of hostile states and that may include introducing new laws.”
These new laws could include “something like the foreign agent registration laws that exist for example in the US and Australia.”
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The Russia report, which accused the government of carelessness and underestimating Moscow, recommended updating Britain’s espionage laws, explicitly citing FARA as an example to emulate.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk