FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that the bureau has
identified a Russian intelligence campaign targeting users of
commercial messaging applications to access high-value accounts,
AzerNEWS reports, citing Anadolu Agency.
The campaign has resulted in unauthorized access to thousands of
individual accounts globally, Patel said, with targets including
current and former US government officials, military personnel,
political figures and journalists.
The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA) said in an advisory that Russian intelligence actors had
compromised individual accounts but had not broken the encryption
of the applications themselves.
The attack works through phishing messages disguised as
automated support notifications from the platforms. Targets are
tricked into clicking links or handing over verification codes or
account PINs, which either adds the attacker’s device as a linked
device or gives them full control of the account
“After gaining access, the actors can view messages and contact
lists, send messages as the victim, and conduct additional phishing
from a trusted identity,” said Patel.
He stressed that the vulnerability lay with users rather than
the apps, urging the public to take protective action.
The FBI and CISA urged users to pause and disengage if a message
feels suspicious, never share verification codes or PINs for
actions they did not initiate, and scrutinize links before
clicking.
They also recommended regularly checking group chat participant
lists for duplicate or fake accounts, enabling message expiration
features and reporting suspected phishing to the FBI.
