German Public Prosecution opens an investigation into a spying campaign targeting politicians through the “Signal” application

The German Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating a possible espionage case, related to a phishing campaign targeting German politicians via the encrypted messaging app Signal. A spokeswoman for the office confirmed to the German News Agency on Friday that the highest judicial authority in Germany had been investigating the case since mid-February. The Constitutional Protection Authority (German domestic intelligence) and the German Federal Office for Information Security issued a public warning last February regarding the ongoing electronic attack through the “Signal” application.

Last week, the two security agencies issued an additional security bulletin that included specific instructions, after it became clear that hackers had targeted German journalists, military personnel, and politicians.

The bulletin stated that it is most likely that this campaign “is behind an electronic entity supported by a state,” and current data indicate that the campaign is still active and is even gaining increasing momentum.

For its part, the German magazine “Der Spiegel” reported that these phishing attacks targeted members of the German Parliament (Bundestag) from almost all parliamentary blocs, and that officials in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were also among the targets of the expanded espionage campaign.