The British Army says it is investigating after its Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked by cyber crooks in an NFT scam.
Just last week videos on cryptocurrency using images of billionaire businessman Elon Musk appeared on the YouTube channel. The Twitter feed appeared to retweet several posts related to NFTs – a type of electronic artwork for investment.
It is not clear who is behind the hacking incidents, which also saw the accounts renamed. It is not the first time that a high-profile account has been targeted on Twitter. In July 2020 major US accounts were taken over by hackers in an apparent Bitcoin scam. Those accounts affected included Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West.
An NFT is a unique computer file encrypted with an artist’s signature, which acts as a digital certificate of ownership and authenticity. Unlike similar technologies such as bitcoin, each NFT is in some way unique. This means they can be used for more than just currency. In the past few years, NFTs have been adopted by people seeking to turn art, music, videos and games into digital assets – and have been hailed as the digital answer to collectibles.
But as with any new industry or trend, the NFT space is highly attractive to scammers and hackers looking to take advantage of those with little knowledge of the emerging technology.
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