An investigation is underway after the British Army’s Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked into.
Images of tech giant Elon Musk appeared on the video channel while the social media outlet appeared to retweet post relating to investment artwork.
The Army confirmed a “breach” had happened but both accounts had been restored.
A spokesman added : “Whilst we have now resolved the issue an investigation is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The identity of the hackers is not known or what the motive was.
According to a report by the BBC, the Army’s Twitter account name was changed to Bapesclan, accompanied by a profile picture featuring an ape-like cartoon figure with make-up mimicking a clown.
The British Army’s YouTube channel, which has 177,000 subscribers, was also compromised with its name replaced with Ark Invest. It promoted several live videos claiming to show an interview about cryptocurrency with Tesla founder Elon Musk.
By last night, the account was restored and ran the post: “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.”
Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the House of Commons defence select committee, said: “I hope the results of the investigation and actions taken will be shared appropriately.”
It is not the first time that Twitter has been the target of a hacking.
Two years ago, major US accounts were taken over by hackers in an apparent Bitcoin scam, affecting Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West.