Germany Caught Up in Likely Russian Signal Phishing

Governments Have Long Warned About Kremlin Social Engineering Hacks David Meyer • April 28, 2026

Signal is defending the security of its systems following a series of phishing attacks that took place on the encrypted messaging platform, and that reportedly compromised members of the German government including the president of the country's parliament.

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The government said Russia was probably behind the attack, which falls into a pattern that has been apparent for more than a year. Signal said Monday that it will make such attacks less viable.

As far back as February 2025, Google security researchers warned that Russian military intelligence hackers were targeting Ukrainian Signal users with social engineering attacks, sending them malicious QR codes that abuse the app's linked devices function. The codes are often presented as group chat invites, and ...