The British Army’s Twitter account has been hacked and flooded with content promoting giveaways and competitions for followers to win non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The social media account’s name has changed several times, with new profile pictures including an ape wearing facepaint akin to that of Batman villain The Joker, as well as a cartoon robot.
Posts made from the account are urging followers to join competitions, with winners selected at random to receive NFTs – digital artworks that are stored on the blockchain.
The hack raises concerns over the security of other British Army social media accounts.
MailOnline has approached the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for comment.
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.
First published in Daily Mail (UK)