Germany Suspects Russia Is Behind Signal Phishing That Targeted Top Officials
Source SecurityWeek
Description
Since mid-February 2026, German federal prosecutors have been investigating a phishing campaign targeting Signal accounts of high-ranking officials, including government ministers, military personnel, and journalists. The attackers impersonated a Signal security chatbot to trick victims into linking their accounts to external devices, enabling access to past and ongoing conversations and stored data. Approximately 300 Signal accounts were compromised. German authorities suspect Russian state actors may be behind the campaign, though no official attribution has been made. Similar warnings have been issued by Dutch intelligence regarding Russian state hackers targeting Signal and WhatsApp accounts. The campaign is considered espionage-related and has drawn significant attention from European security agencies.