Russian hackers target officials via WhatsApp and Signal
POLITICO - Monday, March 9, 2026Hackers from the Kremlin have mounted a “large-scale global cyber campaign” targeting civil servants, military personnel and other notable figures via messaging applications WhatsApp and Signal, Dutch intelligence services warned on Monday.
The Russian operation aims to trick victims into revealing PIN codes for secure messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp, the Netherlands’ military intelligence service and domestic intelligence agency said in a joint public advisory. The bulletin did not indicate when the deception campaign began.
Hackers are posing as a fake Signal support chatbot to persuade users to share their codes, allowing them to take over an account to read incoming communications and group chats. The culprits were also found to have exploited the “linked devices” feature of the apps, which lets them connect another device to the victim’s account and quietly monitor messages.
The campaign has targeted government personnel as well as individuals of interest to the Russian government, including journalists, the Dutch authorities said. They also emphasized that individual accounts have been compromised, not the messaging apps as a whole.
Signal is used widely by public officials as a secure and independent communications channel, and has been the recommended application for EU officials to use for external comms since 2020.
“Despite their end-to-end encryption option, messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp should not be used as channels for classified, confidential or sensitive information,” said the director of the Dutch military intelligence service, Peter Reesink.
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other top U.S. officials came under fire last year for using the app to exchange classified information in an incident known as Signalgate.
WhatsApp’s communication director, Joshua Breckman, said the company continues “to build ways to protect people from online threats ,” adding that users should never share their six-digit code with others.
Signal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Russian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.