The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported on Friday that threat actors connected to Russian Intelligence Services are running phishing campaigns to breach commercial messaging applications (CMAs) like WhatsApp and Signal in order to take control of accounts belonging to people with high intelligence value.
FBI Director Kash Patel stated in a post on X that the effort targets people of high intelligence value, including as current and former U.S. government officials, military personnel, political figures, and journalists.
This endeavor has led to thousands of individual accounts being accessed without authorization worldwide. The actors can send messages as the victim, check messages and contact lists, and carry out more phishing from a trusted identity after they have gained access.
It’s important to note that the attacks are intended to use phishing to access the victims’ CMA accounts; they do not take use of any security flaws to go past the platforms read more about FBI Warns Russian Hackers Target Signal WhatsApp in Mass Phishing Attacks.
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