Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD warn that Russian state‑backed hackers are running a large‑scale campaign to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts of high‑value targets.
The targets are said to be senior officials, military personnel, civil servants, and journalists. The attackers are not breaking end‑to‑end encryption or exploiting a vulnerability in the apps themselves. Instead, they rely on proven phishing and social engineering methods to trick users into handing over verification codes and PINs, or to add a malicious “linked device” to their account.
Last year we reported on GhostPairing, a method that tricks the target into completing WhatsApp’s own device-pairing flow, silently adding the attacker’s browser as an invisible linked device to the account.
In the cases reported by the Dutch intelligence services, the attackers contacted victims on Signal or WhatsApp while posing as “Signal Security Support Chatbot”, “Signal Support” or a similar official‑sounding account.
The message typically warns about suspicious activity or a possible detected data leak and instructs the user to complete a verification step to avoid losing data or having their account blocked.
Victims are then asked to send back the SMS verification code they just received and/or their Signal PIN.
If the victim complies, the attacker can register the account on a device they control and effectively take it over, receiving new messages and sending messages as the victim.
In a second variant, attackers abuse the “linked devices” feature (Signal’s and WhatsApp’s desktop or other secondary device function). Targets are pushed to click a link or scan a QR code that silently links the attacker’s device to the victim’s account. The victim keeps access as normal, but the attacker can now read along in real time without obvious signs of compromise.
These attacks are not new, but deserve a renewed warning because they rely entirely on human behavior, and understanding how they work makes them easier to stop. The methods used are not technically sophisticated and they can easily be copied by non‑state actors or ordinary cybercriminals.
Because of the current Russian campaigns, AIVD and MIVD say that chat apps such as Signal and WhatsApp are unsuitable for sharing classified, confidential, or otherwise sensitive government information, even though they technically support end‑to‑end encryption.
How to keep your conversations confidential
One specific warning for the targeted users is to use designated apps for sensitive information. Despite dedicated secure systems being available to many of them, some resorted to apps they already knew—Signal and WhatsApp. And to be fair, these apps are safe if you follow a few basic rules:
How to prevent and detect compromised accounts
Never share verification codes or PIN numbers. Your SMS verification code and PIN are only needed when you install or re‑register the app on a device. They are never legitimately requested in a chat. Any in‑app message, direct message (DM), email, or SMS asking you to send these codes back is a phishing attempt.
Do not trust “support” accounts in chat. Signal explicitly states that Support will never contact you via in‑app messages, SMS, or social media to ask for your verification code or PIN. Treat any “Signal Support Bot”, “Security Chatbot” or similar as malicious, block and report it and then delete the conversation.
Be cautious with links and QR codes in chat. Only scan QR codes or click device‑linking links when you yourself are in the app’s device‑linking menu and you initiated the process. If a message pushes you to “verify your device” or “secure your data” via a link or QR, assume it is part of this campaign.
Regularly review linked devices and group memberships. In Signal and WhatsApp, check the list of linked devices and remove anything you do not recognize. Also keep an eye out for strange group participants or duplicate contacts (for example “deleted account” or a contact that appears twice), which Dutch intelligence services mention as possible signs of account compromise.
Use built‑in hardening features. Enable options like registration lock, registration PIN and device‑change alerts so that your account cannot be silently re‑registered without an extra secret. Store your PIN in a password manager instead of choosing something easy to guess or reusing a common code, to reduce the chance of social engineering or shoulder‑surfing.
Use disappearing messages
Both Signal and WhatsApp support disappearing messages, and using them can meaningfully limit the impact of account compromise or device access (though they don’t prevent it completely).
Short‑timer and disappearing messages reduce how much content is available if an attacker gets into a chat later, or if someone obtains long‑term access to a device or backup. They are not a complete solution, but they can limit the damage.
Signal lets you set a per‑chat timer so that all new messages in that conversation auto‑delete from all devices after the chosen period. You can enable it for 1:1 or group chats and choose from various durations (seconds to weeks), and either party can see it is enabled and change the timer.
WhatsApp also supports disappearing messages with timers per chat (and a default option for new chats). Messages can auto-delete after periods such as 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days, and newer builds include shorter options like 1 or 12 hours.
You turn it on in the chat info under “Disappearing messages,” then pick the desired timer; only messages sent after enabling it are affected.
For particularly sensitive media or voice messages, WhatsApp also offers “view once” photos, voice messages, and videos that can only be opened a single time before disappearing from the chat.
To set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on Signal, enable the Registration Lock feature, which requires your set PIN to log in on a new device. Open Signal, go to Settings > Privacy > Registration Lock and turn it on. This ensures that even if someone steals your SIM, they cannot access your account without your personal PIN.
We don’t just report on privacy—we offer you the option to use it.
Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.
Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD warn that Russian state‑backed hackers are running a large‑scale campaign to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts of high‑value targets.
The targets are said to be senior officials, military personnel, civil servants, and journalists. The attackers are not breaking end‑to‑end encryption or exploiting a vulnerability in the apps themselves. Instead, they rely on proven phishing and social engineering methods to trick users into handing over verification codes and PINs, or to add a malicious “linked device” to their account.
Last year we reported on GhostPairing, a method that tricks the target into completing WhatsApp’s own device-pairing flow, silently adding the attacker’s browser as an invisible linked device to the account.
In the cases reported by the Dutch intelligence services, the attackers contacted victims on Signal or WhatsApp while posing as “Signal Security Support Chatbot”, “Signal Support” or a similar official‑sounding account.
The message typically warns about suspicious activity or a possible detected data leak and instructs the user to complete a verification step to avoid losing data or having their account blocked.
Victims are then asked to send back the SMS verification code they just received and/or their Signal PIN.
If the victim complies, the attacker can register the account on a device they control and effectively take it over, receiving new messages and sending messages as the victim.
In a second variant, attackers abuse the “linked devices” feature (Signal’s and WhatsApp’s desktop or other secondary device function). Targets are pushed to click a link or scan a QR code that silently links the attacker’s device to the victim’s account. The victim keeps access as normal, but the attacker can now read along in real time without obvious signs of compromise.
These attacks are not new, but deserve a renewed warning because they rely entirely on human behavior, and understanding how they work makes them easier to stop. The methods used are not technically sophisticated and they can easily be copied by non‑state actors or ordinary cybercriminals.
Because of the current Russian campaigns, AIVD and MIVD say that chat apps such as Signal and WhatsApp are unsuitable for sharing classified, confidential, or otherwise sensitive government information, even though they technically support end‑to‑end encryption.
How to keep your conversations confidential
One specific warning for the targeted users is to use designated apps for sensitive information. Despite dedicated secure systems being available to many of them, some resorted to apps they already knew—Signal and WhatsApp. And to be fair, these apps are safe if you follow a few basic rules:
How to prevent and detect compromised accounts
Never share verification codes or PIN numbers. Your SMS verification code and PIN are only needed when you install or re‑register the app on a device. They are never legitimately requested in a chat. Any in‑app message, direct message (DM), email, or SMS asking you to send these codes back is a phishing attempt.
Do not trust “support” accounts in chat. Signal explicitly states that Support will never contact you via in‑app messages, SMS, or social media to ask for your verification code or PIN. Treat any “Signal Support Bot”, “Security Chatbot” or similar as malicious, block and report it and then delete the conversation.
Be cautious with links and QR codes in chat. Only scan QR codes or click device‑linking links when you yourself are in the app’s device‑linking menu and you initiated the process. If a message pushes you to “verify your device” or “secure your data” via a link or QR, assume it is part of this campaign.
Regularly review linked devices and group memberships. In Signal and WhatsApp, check the list of linked devices and remove anything you do not recognize. Also keep an eye out for strange group participants or duplicate contacts (for example “deleted account” or a contact that appears twice), which Dutch intelligence services mention as possible signs of account compromise.
Use built‑in hardening features. Enable options like registration lock, registration PIN and device‑change alerts so that your account cannot be silently re‑registered without an extra secret. Store your PIN in a password manager instead of choosing something easy to guess or reusing a common code, to reduce the chance of social engineering or shoulder‑surfing.
Use disappearing messages
Both Signal and WhatsApp support disappearing messages, and using them can meaningfully limit the impact of account compromise or device access (though they don’t prevent it completely).
Short‑timer and disappearing messages reduce how much content is available if an attacker gets into a chat later, or if someone obtains long‑term access to a device or backup. They are not a complete solution, but they can limit the damage.
Signal lets you set a per‑chat timer so that all new messages in that conversation auto‑delete from all devices after the chosen period. You can enable it for 1:1 or group chats and choose from various durations (seconds to weeks), and either party can see it is enabled and change the timer.
WhatsApp also supports disappearing messages with timers per chat (and a default option for new chats). Messages can auto-delete after periods such as 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days, and newer builds include shorter options like 1 or 12 hours.
You turn it on in the chat info under “Disappearing messages,” then pick the desired timer; only messages sent after enabling it are affected.
For particularly sensitive media or voice messages, WhatsApp also offers “view once” photos, voice messages, and videos that can only be opened a single time before disappearing from the chat.
To set up two-factor authentication (2FA) on Signal, enable the Registration Lock feature, which requires your set PIN to log in on a new device. Open Signal, go to Settings > Privacy > Registration Lock and turn it on. This ensures that even if someone steals your SIM, they cannot access your account without your personal PIN.
We don’t just report on privacy—we offer you the option to use it.
Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.
If you don’t go searching for AI services, they’ll find you all the same. Every major tech company feels a moral obligation not just to develop an AI assistant, integrated chatbot, or autonomous agent, but to bake it into their existing mainstream products and forcibly activate it for tens of millions of users. Here are just a few examples from the last six months:
Google activated Gemini for all U.S. Chrome users, cranked its browser functionality to the max, aggressively expanded the reach of AI Overviews in search results, and baked a whole suite of AI features into its online services (Gmail, Google Docs, and others).
Apple integrated its own Apple Intelligence (conveniently sharing the AI acronym) into the latest OS versions across all device types and most of its native apps.
On the flip side, geeks have rushed to build their own “personal Jarvises” by renting VPS instances or hoarding Mac minis to run the OpenClaw AI agent. Unfortunately, OpenClaw’s security issues with default settings turned out to be so massive that it’s already been dubbed the biggest cybersecurity threat of 2026.
Beyond the sheer annoyance of having something shoved down your throat, this AI epidemic brings some very real practical risks and headaches. AI assistants hoover up every bit of data they can get their hands on, parsing the context of the websites you visit, analyzing your saved documents, reading through your chats, and so on. This gives AI companies an unprecedentedly intimate look into every user’s life.
A leak of this data during a cyberattack — whether from the AI provider’s servers or from the cache on your own machine — could be catastrophic. These assistants can see and cache everything you can, including data usually tucked behind multiple layers of security: banking info, medical diagnoses, private messages, and other sensitive intel. We took a deep dive into how this plays out when we broke down the issues with the AI-powered Copilot+ Recall system, which Microsoft also planned to force-feed to everyone. On top of that, AI can be a total resource hog, eating up RAM, GPU cycles, and storage, which often leads to a noticeable hit to system performance.
For those who want to sit out the AI storm and avoid these half-baked, rushed-to-market neural network assistants, we’ve put together a quick guide on how to kill the AI in popular apps and services.
How to disable AI in Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Workspace
Google’s AI assistant features in Mail and Docs are lumped together under the umbrella of “smart features”. In addition to the large language model, this includes various minor conveniences, like automatically adding meetings to your calendar when you receive an invite in Gmail. Unfortunately, it’s an all-or-nothing deal: you have to disable all of the “smart features” to get rid of the AI.
To do this, open Gmail, click the Settings (gear) icon, and then select See all settings. On the General tab, scroll down to Google Workspace smart features. Click Manage Workspace smart feature settings and toggle off two options: Smart features in Google Workspace and Smart features in other Google products. We also recommend unchecking the box next to Turn on smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet on the same general settings tab. You’ll need to restart your Google apps afterward (which usually happens automatically).
How to disable AI Overviews in Google Search
You can kill off AI Overviews in search results on both desktops and smartphones (including iPhones), and the fix is the same across the board. The simplest way to bypass the AI overview on a case-by-case basis is to append -ai to your search query — for example, how to make pizza -ai. Unfortunately, this method occasionally glitches, causing Google to abruptly claim it found absolutely nothing for your request.
If that happens, you can achieve the same result by switching the search results page to Web mode. To do this, select the Web filter immediately below the search bar — you’ll often find it tucked away under the More button.
A more radical solution is to jump ship to a different search engine entirely. For instance, DuckDuckGo not only tracks users less and shows little ads, but it also offers a dedicated AI-free search — just bookmark the search page at noai.duckduckgo.com.
How to disable AI features in Chrome
Chrome currently has two types of AI features baked in. The first communicates with Google’s servers and handles things like the smart assistant, an autonomous browsing AI agent, and smart search. The second handles locally more utility-based tasks, such as identifying phishing pages or grouping browser tabs. The first group of settings is labeled AI mode, while the second contains the term Gemini Nano.
To disable them, type chrome://flags into the address bar and hit Enter. You’ll see a list of system flags and a search bar; type “AI” into that search bar. This will filter the massive list down to about a dozen AI features (and a few other settings where those letters just happen to appear in a longer word). The second search term you’ll need in this window is “Gemini“.
After reviewing the options, you can disable the unwanted AI features — or just turn them all off — but the bare minimum should include:
AI Mode Omnibox entrypoint
AI Entrypoint Disabled on User Input
Omnibox Allow AI Mode Matches
Prompt API for Gemini Nano
Prompt API for Gemini Nano with Multimodal Input
Set all of these to Disabled.
How to disable AI features in Firefox
While Firefox doesn’t have its own built-in chatbots and hasn’t (yet) tried to force upon users agent-based features, the browser does come equipped with smart-tab grouping, a sidebar for chatbots, and a few other perks. Generally, AI in Firefox is much less “in your face” than in Chrome or Edge. But if you still want to pull the plug, you’ve two ways to do it.
The first method is available in recent Firefox releases — starting with version 148, a dedicated AI Controls section appeared in the browser settings, though the controls are currently a bit sparse. You can use a single toggle to completely Block AI enhancements, shutting down AI features entirely. You can also specify whether you want to use On-device AI by downloading small local models (currently just for translations) and configure AI chatbot providers in sidebar, choosing between Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Google Gemini, and Le Chat Mistral.
The second path — for older versions of Firefox — requires a trip into the hidden system settings. Type about:config into the address bar, hit Enter, and click the button to confirm that you accept the risk of poking around under the hood.
A massive list of settings will appear along with a search bar. Type “ML” to filter for settings related to machine learning.
To disable AI in Firefox, toggle the browser.ml.enabled setting to false. This should disable all AI features across the board, but community forums suggest this isn’t always enough to do the trick. For a scorched-earth approach, set the following parameters to false (or selectively keep only what you need):
ml.chat.enabled
ml.linkPreview.enabled
ml.pageAssist.enabled
ml.smartAssist.enabled
ml.enabled
ai.control.translations
tabs.groups.smart.enabled
urlbar.quicksuggest.mlEnabled
This will kill off chatbot integrations, AI-generated link descriptions, assistants and extensions, local translation of websites, tab grouping, and other AI-driven features.
How to disable AI features in Microsoft apps
Microsoft has managed to bake AI into almost every single one of its products, and turning it off is often no easy task — especially since the AI sometimes has a habit of resurrecting itself without your involvement.
How to disable AI features in Edge
Microsoft’s browser is packed with AI features, ranging from Copilot to automated search. To shut them down, follow the same logic as with Chrome: type edge://flags into the Edge address bar, hit Enter, then type “AI” or “Copilot” into the search box. From there, you can toggle off the unwanted AI features, such as:
Enable Compose (AI-writing) on the web
Edge Copilot Mode
Edge History AI
Another way to ditch Copilot is to enter edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar into the address bar. Here, you can customize the look of the Copilot sidebar and tweak personalization options for results and notifications. Don’t forget to peek into the Copilot section under App-specific settings — you’ll find some additional controls tucked away there.
How to disable Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot comes in two flavors: as a component of Windows (Microsoft Copilot), and as part of the Office suite (Microsoft 365 Copilot). Their functions are similar, but you’ll have to disable one or both depending on exactly what the Redmond engineers decided to shove onto your machine.
The simplest thing you can do is just uninstall the app entirely. Right-click the Copilot entry in the Start menu and select Uninstall. If that option isn’t there, head over to your installed apps list (Start → Settings → Apps) and uninstall Copilot from there.
In certain builds of Windows 11, Copilot is baked directly into the OS, so a simple uninstall might not work. In that case, you can toggle it off via the settings: Start → Settings → Personalization → Taskbar→ turn off Copilot.
If you ever have a change of heart, you can always reinstall Copilot from the Microsoft Store.
It’s worth noting that many users have complained about Copilot automatically reinstalling itself, so you might want to do a weekly check for a couple of months to make sure it hasn’t staged a comeback. For those who are comfortable tinkering with the System Registry (and understand the consequences), you can follow this detailed guide to prevent Copilot’s silent resurrection by disabling the SilentInstalledAppsEnabled flag and adding/enabling the TurnOffWindowsCopilot parameter.
How to disable Microsoft Recall
The Microsoft Recall feature, first introduced in 2024, works by constantly taking screenshots of your computer screen and having a neural network analyze them. All that extracted information is dumped into a database, which you can then search using an AI assistant. We’ve previously written in detail about the massive security risks Microsoft Recall poses.
Under pressure from cybersecurity experts, Microsoft was forced to push the launch of this feature from 2024 to 2025, significantly beefing up the protection of the stored data. However, the core of Recall remains the same: your computer still remembers your every move by constantly snapping screenshots and OCR-ing the content. And while the feature is no longer enabled by default, it’s absolutely worth checking to make sure it hasn’t been activated on your machine.
To check, head to the settings: Start → Settings → Privacy & Security →Recall & snapshots. Ensure the Save snapshots toggle is turned off, and click Delete snapshots to wipe any previously collected data, just in case.
How to disable AI in Notepad and Windows context actions
AI has seeped into every corner of Windows, even into File Explorer and Notepad. You might even trigger AI features just by accidentally highlighting text in an app — a feature Microsoft calls “AI Actions”. To shut this down, head to Start → Settings → Privacy & Security → Click to Do.
Notepad has received its own special Copilot treatment, so you’ll need to disable AI there separately. Open the Notepad settings, find the AI features section, and toggle Copilot off.
Finally, Microsoft has even managed to bake Copilot into Paint. Unfortunately, as of right now, there is no official way to disable the AI features within the Paint app itself.
How to disable AI in WhatsApp
In several regions, WhatsApp users have started seeing typical AI additions like suggested replies, AI message summaries, and a brand-new Chat with Meta AI button. While Meta claims the first two features process data locally on your device and don’t ship your chats off to their servers, verifying that is no small feat. Luckily, turning them off is straightforward.
To disable Suggested Replies, go to Settings → Chats → Suggestions & smart replies and toggle off Suggested replies. You can also kill off AI Sticker suggestions in that same menu. As for the AI message summaries, those are managed in a different location: Settings → Notifications → AI message summaries.
How to disable AI on Android
Given the sheer variety of manufacturers and Android flavors, there’s no one-size-fits-all instruction manual for every single phone. Today, we’ll focus on killing off Google’s AI services — but if you’re using a device from Samsung, Xiaomi, or others, don’t forget to check your specific manufacturer’s AI settings. Just a heads-up: fully scrubbing every trace of AI might be a tall order — if it’s even possible at all.
In Google Messages, the AI features are tucked away in the settings: tap your account picture, select Messages settings, then Gemini in Messages, and toggle the assistant off.
Broadly speaking, the Gemini chatbot is a standalone app that you can uninstall by heading to your phone’s settings and selecting Apps. However, given Google’s master plan to replace the long-standing Google Assistant with Gemini, uninstalling it might become difficult — or even impossible — down the road.
If you can’t completely uninstall Gemini, head into the app to kill its features manually. Tap your profile icon, select Gemini Apps activity, and then choose Turn off or Turn off and delete activity. Next, tap the profile icon again and go to the Connected Apps setting (it may be hiding under the Personal Intelligence setting). From here, you should disable all the apps where you don’t want Gemini poking its nose in.
Apple’s platform-level AI features, collectively known as Apple Intelligence, are refreshingly straightforward to disable. In your settings — on desktops, smartphones, and tablets alike — simply look for the section labeled Apple Intelligence & Siri. By the way, depending on your region and the language you’ve selected for your OS and Siri, Apple Intelligence might not even be available to you yet.
Other posts to help you tune the AI tools on your devices:
Login
