High-ranking officials of the European Union have been targeted by “spearphishing” cyber attacks, attributed to hackers supported by foreign governments, who have attempted to take over their messaging accounts.
The information appears in an internal presentation of the EU’s cyber defense structure, obtained by POLITICO.
The document was presented in July to representatives of the member states’ governments and includes “taking control over the accounts of high-ranking officials” among the main cyber threats facing the European Union.
This is the first time a European structure publicly acknowledges that EU officials have been the target of such attacks through messaging applications. The presentation also represents the first reported situation where a European authority officially links these attacks to a foreign government.
Customized messages and manipulation techniques
According to the document, the attacks were carried out through campaigns of “state-sponsored spearphishing”. Hackers used social engineering techniques and prepared personalized messages to persuade the targeted officials to access suspicious links or provide information that could allow the compromise of their accounts.
The European authorities responsible for cybersecurity have reported eight “significant incidents” in EU institutions since the beginning of this year.
In March, at least five national cybersecurity and information agencies warned about a series of hacking campaigns carried out through applications such as Signal and WhatsApp.
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