Dutch intelligence agencies AIVD and MIVD issued a warning on Monday regarding a global hacking campaign by Russian state-backed actors. The operation targets users of Signal and WhatsApp to extract sensitive information.
Hackers aim to compromise accounts belonging to government officials, military personnel, and journalists. Dutch government employees are confirmed among the victims of these breaches.
The campaign utilizes social engineering tactics rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities within the applications. Actors trick users into sharing security verification codes or PINs, occasionally by impersonating a Signal support chatbot.
Attackers abuse the linked devices feature to mirror a victim's messages in real time. Officials confirmed that while the platforms' end-to-end encryption remains intact, individual user accounts are the primary targets.