77th Brigade is the British army's mysterious and highly controversial online psychological warfare unit – the creation of which was apparently supported by the Institute for Statecraft, the shadowy UK and NATO-funded parent of Integrity Initiative – staffed by both full-time soldiers and part-time reservists.
Little is known about the true nature of its activities — its official website states its responsible for “[challenging] the difficulties of modern warfare using non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviours of the opposing forces and adversaries”. Some suggest this is a euphemism for hacking, spreading propaganda on social media, discrediting individuals, and organizations and countries criticizing the British state and NATO, and other dubious cyber activities.
Whatever the truth of the matter, what's clear is the division's information security precautions, and sense of humour, are both lacking — for an individual managed to easily take over the Brigade's official Twitter.
‘Bad Guy'
Interviewed by tech magazine The Register, the man, who identified himself as “boredbloke”, said the Brigade was a “juicy target” for hacking, and spotted an obvious “gaping hole” which would allow him — and any other malign actor — to easily take over the account.
“Had a ‘bad person' spotted the same hole, it would have led to chaos and at the least embarrassment;…