EU officials targeted by state-sponsored spearphishing attacks

An internal presentation from the European Union’s cyber defense unit reveals that foreign governments are targeting the messaging accounts of high-ranking EU officials through state-sponsored spearphishing campaigns. This marks the first time an EU authority has officially linked such cyberattacks to foreign governments, specifically noting connections to Russian threat groups.

The attacks utilize social engineering techniques to trick officials into clicking malicious links or opening compromised attachments. Due to these security risks, European cybersecurity services have advised governments to move away from commercial messaging applications like WhatsApp and Signal for official business. Earlier this year, the European Commission reportedly instructed senior officials to cease using certain Signal groups due to hacking fears.