Ukraine’s security service says Russian intelligence and affiliated hackers ran a long-running social-engineering campaign to break into messaging accounts used by officials, military personnel, politicians, activists and other targets in Ukraine, Europe and the United States. According to the SBU, the attackers did not exploit a software flaw in the messaging apps; instead they impersonated platform support in text messages and tricked victims into handing over credentials, one-time verification codes, or PINs. The FBI reportedly worked with Ukraine on uncovering the activity, but the agencies did not name the specific Russian service, platforms, or victim count.
Why it matters: This is an account-takeover campaign aimed at high-value communications, so affected users could lose access to sensitive military, political, and personal information without any app vulnerability being involved. Organizations should urgently warn staff that support-themed texts asking for login details or verification codes are fraudulent and should review messaging-app account protections and recovery settings.
2026.06.26
100% relevant
This article establishes a distinct SBU-announced Russian social-engineering campaign focused on hijacking messaging accounts across Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S., with new attribution and scope details not tied to a single previously tracked incident.
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