EU officials were targeted on WhatsApp, an internal document shows
Foreign governments have tried to break into the messaging accounts of senior European Union officials. The bloc’s own cyber defence unit told national governments so in July.
An internal presentation lists “account takeover targeting high-ranking officials” among the top threats facing the bloc this year.
Sam Clark obtained the document for Politico. It is the first official acknowledgement that anyone targeted EU officials through messaging apps.
It is also the first time an EU authority has formally attributed such attacks to a foreign government.
What the presentation describes
The officials were hit with what the document calls state-sponsored spearphishing. That means a government-backed campaign built around specific named people rather than a mass mailing.
Attackers used social engineering, writing personalised messages designed to make a particular official click a link or open an attachment.
The presentation also puts a number on the year. EU institutions have faced eight “significant incidents”...
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