US offers $10 million to identify hackers targeting Signal and WhatsApp users

Russian state-backed hacking groups (UNC5792 and UNC4221) are conducting sophisticated phishing campaigns targeting Signal and WhatsApp users, including US government officials and journalists, with the capability to compromise accounts and bypass encrypted messaging protections. The US State Department is offering a $10 million bounty for intelligence on these threat actors, signaling the severity of this persistent threat to organizational communications security. IT leaders must recognize this as a critical risk to executive-level messaging infrastructure and implement enhanced endpoint protection, employee security awareness training, and verification protocols for account access requests.