“Signal Support calling…”

“Just enter your PIN or scan that QR code over there.”

High-profile German politicians, diplomats and military officers: “OK.”

Russia suspected of sweeping Signal hack attack on German officials – Russia allegedly launched a wide-scale phishing attack through the Signal app targeting Germany’s high-profile politicians, diplomats and military officers.

While the exact number of victims is unclear, German media estimates that at least 300 accounts belonging to political figures were targeted, with even several cabinet members affected, according to the German Press Agency, dpa.

“The number of unreported cases will continue to rise in the coming days.”

Easy Money

A government program that’s easy to scam? Wow. That’s never happened before.

COVID

It’s not the government’s money in the end anyway so who cares, right? Money for nothing and the click’s for free.

The government of North Rhine-Westphalia, a province in western Germany, is believed to have lost tens of millions of euros after it failed to build a secure website for distributing coronavirus emergency aid funding.

The funds were lost following a classic phishing operation.

Cybercriminals created copies of an official website that the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs had set up to distribute COVID-19 financial aid.

Crooks distributed links to their sites using email campaigns, lured users on the sites, and collected details from locals. They then filed requests for government aid on behalf of the real users but they replaced the bank account where funds were to be wired.