Lagarde avoids hackers posing as Merkel on WhatsApp

• Lagarde avoids hackers posing as Merkel on WhatsApp.  
• Hackers attempted to trick her into giving them access to messaging services.
• No sensitive data was compromised, according to the ECB.

Hackers posing as Germany’s former chancellor Angela Merkel attempted to trick European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde into giving them access to her WhatsApp messaging service, but they appear to have been repelled.

The hackers contacted the ECB president by text message, using what appears to have been Merkel’s real mobile phone number, asking her to switch to WhatsApp because it was more secure. Lagarde then called Merkel to confirm that this was indeed what she desired and quickly realized that the communication had not originated from her.

It appears that the hackers desired Lagarde’s WhatsApp authentication code, which would have let them create an account on the Facebook-owned messaging service using the ECB president’s cell phone number.

The ECB issued the following statement: “We can confirm that there was a recent attempt to hack the president. It was identified and halted swiftly. No sensitive data was compromised. We cannot comment further while the investigation is continuing.”

Several prominent German political personalities, including one of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s closest advisers, Jorg Kukies, have had their digital identities hijacked by hackers, according to Business Insider.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Office for Information Security has issued a warning to members of the German parliament about the possibility that they may be targeted by a similar “social engineering” fraud.