Overview
- German federal prosecutors are investigating a broad operation that seized Signal accounts of senior politicians, officials and military staff, with media reporting more than 300 victims.
- The intruders sent fake support messages that asked for a Signal PIN, link click or QR scan, which let them take over accounts and read up to 45 days of recent chats on private phones.
- Parliament leaders are considering blocking Signal on service devices and moving to Wire, but specialists warn a ban would drive sensitive talks onto personal phones without training and usable secure handsets.
- Dutch intelligence services and the FBI have linked the campaign to actors tied to Russian intelligence, and similar phishing attempts have targeted EU staff, US officials and journalists.
- Inside Russia, a 2019 sovereign-internet law and new powers to order mobile shutdowns underpin wider blocks on Western apps, VPN crackdowns, and rollout of the MAX portal in schools and state offices, raising privacy fears and cutting families off from familiar channels.