WhatsApp Accounts of Australian MP and Staff Hacked in March

An independent federal politician and three staff members had their WhatsApp accounts breached in March as part of a phishing scheme, officials from the Department of Parliamentary Services told Senate estimates hearings on Monday. The breach affected both personal and government-provided devices.

Access to WhatsApp was shut down for several days on laptops issued to federal politicians, their staff and public servants. The member for Warringah confirmed the account was targeted as part of a broader cyber incident affecting parliamentarians and staff.

The matter was reported to the relevant parliamentary authority and the account was secured.

Background on similar incidents The FBI issued a public warning in March about ongoing phishing campaigns by cyber actors associated with the Russian Intelligence Services targeting commercial messaging applications. Two Dutch intelligence agencies warned in the same month that Russian intelligence operatives had engaged in a large-scale global attempt to take over WhatsApp and Signal accounts.

It was reported in April that the Signal accounts of hundreds of people in Germany, including the president of the federal parliament and other current parliamentarians, had been hacked. German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that authorities were confident Russia was behind the attack.

A department spokesperson said the decision to block WhatsApp was based on advice from cybersecurity experts and taken to protect the devices used by parliamentarians’ offices.