Nigerian Army X account hit in second military cyber breach

The Nigerian Army has reported an attempted unauthorised access to its official X account, marking the second reported cyber breach involving a Nigerian military social media account in about two weeks.

The Army’s account began publishing memecoin-related updates at about 3:50 p.m. on Saturday, before the development was flagged as a cybersecurity incident.

The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Appolonia Anele, confirmed the incident in a statement posted on the Army’s official Facebook page.

“The Nigerian Army has detected and is actively responding to an attempted unauthorised access to its official X (formerly Twitter) account,” she said.

Anele said immediate technical and protective measures had been activated to secure the account, prevent further unauthorised access and protect the integrity of information disseminated through the platform.

“The Nigerian Army assures members of the public, the media and other stakeholders that appropriate measures are underway to fully secure the affected account and restore exclusive administrative control,” she said.

The Army urged members of the public to exercise caution and disregard any “suspicious, unauthorised, misleading or unverified content” posted from the affected X account.

It also advised the public and media organisations to verify information through its other official communication channels until the incident is fully resolved.

It was not immediately clear whether the Army had regained full control of the account, as the last post visible on the page was published before the reported breach.

The development came about two weeks after the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) disclosed that its official X account had been compromised in a cyberattack.

In a statement issued on August 15, the Director of Defence Information, Samaila Uba, said the DHQ had implemented appropriate technical measures to secure the account and prevent further unauthorised access.

The latest incident raises fresh concerns over the cybersecurity of official military communication platforms, which are increasingly used to disseminate security-related information to the public.