In an article published on July 13, 2022, the media Business Insider revealed that several political figures have been the target of hackers in recent weeks. The cybercriminals allegedly tried to hack several WhatsApp accounts, including that of Christine Lagarde.
Christine Lagarde’s WhatsApp account was targeted
Indeed, a few days ago, hackers tried to extract information from Christine Lagarde, the current President of the European Central Bank (ECB) and former Minister of the Economy under the government of Nicolas Sarkozy. An investigation has been opened to find out who is behind this cyberattack and to find out the hackers’ motivations. According to an ECB spokesperson, the cybercriminals’ attempt failed. Hackers failed to extract information from Christine Lagarde.
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To achieve their ends, the hackers tried to impersonate Angela Merkel on WhatsApp. They used a very particular strategy. Indeed, Christine Lagarde would have been contacted on her mobile phone, from WhatsApp messaging, by a number which seemed to be that of the former German chancellor. The objective of this cyberattack was to push the President of the ECB to deliver her WhatsApp authentication code. To encourage Christine Lagarde to respond, the hackers would have put forward computer security arguments.
The hackers impersonated Angela Merkel
As a precaution, the boss of the European Central Bank would have called the former German chancellor to ask her if she really wanted to communicate through this channel. This is how Christine Lagarde noticed the deception. Impossible to know how the hackers managed to get through Angela Merkel’s phone number. Two German organizations are on the spot to try to solve this case: the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Office for Information Technology Security.
Following this first series of attacks, the German authorities warned the members of the Bundestag (the German parliamentary assembly). By using the identity of the ex-chancellor, the hackers could succeed in extracting information. In any case, they failed to obtain the authentication code for Christine Lagarde’s WhatsApp account. With this information, they could then have taken over his account. Public figures have a lot of strategic information at their disposal, so it’s no wonder they are the target of attacks like this.
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