Digital Espionage: Phishing Campaign Targets German Elite

German prosecutors are probing phishing attacks via messaging apps targeting key political figures, after a warning by the country's intelligence service. Attackers compromised accounts of high-profile officials, including attempts on the Chancellor, using advanced social engineering methods without exploiting technical vulnerabilities.

German federal prosecutors are delving into phishing attacks orchestrated through messaging apps, a development they announced on Friday. This follows a warning from the nation's intelligence agency about a campaign aiming at influential politicians, diplomats, military officers, and journalists.

A German news outlet, Spiegel, disclosed that hackers compromised the Signal account of parliamentary president Julia Kloeckner and attempted, unsuccessfully, to breach Chancellor Friedrich Merz's account. Both politicians are affiliates of the CDU, Germany's ruling conservative alliance, while the parliamentary press office opted not to comment on the matter.

The domestic intelligence agency BfV, along with the cybersecurity division BSI, has caution ed users about a persistent threat from potentially state-sponsored actors. Hackers employ legitimate security features of apps like Signal and WhatsApp, allied with social engineering, to covertly infiltrate users' chats and contact repositories.