FBI Director Kash Patel warned on Friday that Russian hackers were targeting U.S. officials and other high-value individuals through the encrypted messaging app Signal and that thousands of accounts had been compromised. In a post on“This campaign targeted individuals of high intelligence value, including current and former U.S. government officials, military personnel, politicians, and journalists,” the FBI director explained. “Globally, this effort has resulted in the unauthorized access of thousands of personal accounts.”Patel warned that after gaining access, Russian attackers were able to view messages and contact lists, send messages as the victim, and conduct phishing attacks from the victim’s account.A public service announcement detailing the threat noted that “the attackers specifically targeted Signal accounts, but similar methods could be applied to other” business messaging applications, the New York Post reported.Russian hackers penetrated people’s accounts by sending ‘messages disguised as automated’ [commercial messaging app] Support Account,” which “tricks targets into taking an action, such as clicking a link or providing a verification code or account PIN. “The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned in the PSA that a “full account takeover” could occur if users perform the requested actions.The National Security Agency (NSA) previously warned the War Department about the risks of using Signal, specifically citing the threat from a Russian hacking group active in attacking the app, CBS reported last year.Several senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and War Secretary Pete Hegers, used the app to discuss military strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in a group chat inadvertently shared with reporters last year.
