British Army's Twitter and YouTube accounts show Elon Musk videos after hacking

Several posts also retweeted that appeared to relate to non-fungible tokens

A cyber attack has breached two of the British Army's social media accounts. Getty

An investigation has begun after the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the British military were hacked at the weekend.

Those behind the cyber attack promoted cryptocurrency scams and posted videos of Elon Musk and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey from the army’s social media channels.

A number of posts were also retweeted from its Twitter platform, appearing to relate to non-fungible tokens. NFTs are distinct cryptographic tokens that cannot be replicated and act as a certificate of ownership for virtual items.

At one stage, the account name was changed to Bapesclan and the profile picture depicted an ape-like cartoon figure in clownish make-up.

By 6pm on Sunday, the @BritishArmy handle, which is verified by Twitter, had retweeted a number of posts promoting NFTs on its timeline.

The army's YouTube account had been renamed Ark Invest and was showing several videos relating to cryptocurrency.

“We are aware of a breach of the army's Twitter and YouTube accounts and an investigation is under way,” an army representative said.

“We take information security extremely seriously and are resolving the issue. Until the investigation is complete, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

The army's Twitter feed has 362,000 followers, while the YouTube channel has 177,000 subscribers.

The hack comes after the army launched a recruitment drive with a video featuring robots.

The campaign, called Nothing Can Do What A Soldier Can Do, contains the message that humans, not machines, are the soldiers of the future.

The one-minute advert uses CGI software to create a dystopian future in which a robotic soldier patrols a war zone.

The ending suggests that while technology is important, only soldiers can make instinctive decisions on the ground in such circumstances.