Overview
- Signal, which outlined the changes Friday, will show prominent warnings on first messages from unknown numbers and will remove single‑tap acceptance of new contacts.
- President Meredith Whittaker said the service was not hacked and stressed that Signal will never message users to ask for a PIN, a recovery key, or other credentials.
- Investigators from Amnesty’s Security Lab and others say the campaign used a tool called ApocalypseZ and logged more than 13,700 targeted phone numbers in January.
- Researchers report the attackers read contact lists from compromised accounts to send follow‑up lures, often from foreign numbers, in order to seize more profiles.
- German agencies warned the wave was likely state‑directed, Dutch defense services pointed to Russian state hackers, and reported victims include Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and two cabinet ministers.