New Russian hacking campaign hits Signal, WhatsApp accounts worldwide

Russian state-backed threat actors were disclosed by Dutch intelligence agencies to have launched a global hacking campaign aimed at Signal and WhatsApp accounts, especially those owned by government and military officials and journalists, reports TechCrunch.

Attacks deployed by Russian hackers against the instant messaging apps' accounts involved phishing and social engineering methods, according to the Netherlands' Defence Intelligence and Security Service and the General Intelligence and Security Service. Hackers targeting Signal accounts issued fake alerts of suspicious activity that lured users into providing verification and PIN codes that were later used to register a new device and access users' contacts.

Takeovers of WhatsApp accounts, on the other hand, entailed the exploitation of the app's "Linked devices" functionality to access users' messages from another device. Illicit QR codes have also been used by Russian hackers to compromise accounts on both apps. While additional details regarding the campaign were not shared, some tactics leveraged by Russian attackers were evident in previous intrusions against Ukraine.