How secure are the Commission’s group chats?

Summary

Brussels Playbook Podcast: "How secure are the Commission’s group chats?"

Date: April 2, 2026 | Host: Zoya Sheftalovich (POLITICO)
Guest: Ian Wishart, Senior EU Politics Editor

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the rising security concerns surrounding the European Commission’s use of encrypted messaging apps like Signal, as the EU grapples with increasing cyber threats and election interference across member states. The hosts also discuss Bulgaria's extraordinary plea to Brussels for help in combating foreign interference ahead of its upcoming national election, and touch on football’s surprising political fallout in Italy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bulgaria’s Request for EU Help to Counter Election Interference

• Background (01:25):

  • Bulgaria faces its eighth election in five years—public fatigue is high.
  • The Foreign Ministry in Sofia has preemptively asked the EU for support in countering potential disinformation and foreign interference, particularly from Russia.

• Election Landscape (02:18):

  • Main contenders:
    • Boyko Borisov: Center-right, known in Brussels, hawkish on Russia.
    • Ruman Radev: Independent, backed by socialists, cautious on Ukraine, pushing anti-corruption, slightly more open to Russia.
  • Radev is ahead in the polls with an anti-corruption message (03:00).

• Precedents and Fears (03:28 – 04:01):

  • Bulgaria references Moldova’s and Romania’s recent elections, where interference and social media manipulation—sometimes via TikTok ads—played a decisive role.
  • A study by the Bulgarian Center for the Study of Democracy warns Bulgaria is "one of the most permissive information environments for manipulation in the EU."

• Commission’s Response (04:21):

  • Bulgaria activates the rapid response system under the Digital Services Act, prompting the EU Commission to bring together tech giants (Meta, Google, TikTok) to monitor and disrupt disinformation in real time.

Notable Quote:

"The Foreign Ministry and Sofia has asked the EU to help basically deal with potential attacks of disinformation, misinformation. ...They're concerned about interference, mainly, really, from Russia." — Zoya Sheftalovich [01:53]

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2. Social Media & Disinformation: The EU’s Ongoing Battle

• Changing Threats (04:47 – 05:23):

  • Disinformation campaigns increasingly sway public opinion, especially in Eastern Europe.
  • Social media often lacks the editorial standards expected in traditional media—making it vulnerable to manipulation.

• Sophisticated Adversaries (05:23 – 05:57):

  • Russian and sometimes Chinese influence operations have been documented from the Philippines to Ukraine.
  • The concern is not only over rogue actors but well-resourced, coordinated cyber operations.

Notable Quote:

"Some of the allegations are actually, this is very coordinated and very sophisticated by Russia." — Ian Wishart [05:23]

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3. The Commission Signal Group Shutdown: A Lesson in Digital Vulnerability

• Incident Details (06:12 – 07:00):

  • At least one senior Commission Signal group chat was abruptly closed due to fears of possible interception.
  • No evidence of compromise, but new phishing attempts were reported—targeted text messages asking for users’ Signal PIN codes to hijack accounts.
  • Ongoing cyberattacks on the European Commission have heightened fears (09:25).

• Risks of Messaging Apps (07:31 – 08:26):

  • Even secure-by-design apps are vulnerable if users are ‘phished’ into sharing credentials.
  • Large group chats pose risks: accidental outsider addition, recycled phone numbers, potential leaks (notably, U.S. "SignalGate" with accidental high-level group access).

• Commission’s Response (09:40 – 10:36):

  • Cybersecurity assessments underway.
  • Official advice: minimize use of messaging apps, replace devices regularly, review group memberships, educate staff against phishing.
  • Recognition that personal mobile numbers possibly leaked in prior cyberattacks may be used in these new targeted attempts.

Notable Quote:

"The content is irrelevant, actually, because it shows just what's possible." — Ian Wishart [06:31]

"The more you use these apps, particularly large groups of people using these apps, it's easy to add the wrong person or someone gets a new phone number and all of a sudden you've got some random in your group." — Zoya Sheftalovich [08:08]

"But it really is a huge kind of deal, because every official out there could be susceptible to these sorts of phishing attempts." — Zoya Sheftalovich [10:31]

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4. Football and National Identity: Italy’s World Cup Woes

• Sports Meets Politics (10:36 – 12:14):
  • Italy fails to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the third consecutive time—national outrage spills over into parliament.
  • Politicians demand answers from the sports minister; failure in football perceived as symbolic of larger governmental failings.

Notable Moment:

"It was the first question raised yesterday morning in the Italian Parliament. What are you going to do about the state of our football team?" — Ian Wishart [11:16]

"Is it just to make them less shit?" — Zoya Sheftalovich [11:39]

"It's such a big cultural thing, isn't it? In Italy, if the football team is failing, then you feel your country is failing. You feel your politicians are failing." — Ian Wishart [11:46]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Information Warfare:

  “It's basically really the wild, wild west out there and the Commission is trying to do something about it.” — Zoya Sheftalovich [05:03]

• On Security Risks:

  "We don't know exactly who, but, you know, we can have some guesses and they start with R and end in shah." — Zoya Sheftalovich [06:44]

• On Messaging Habits:

  “In the old days, you would just come and speak, you know, in the corridor or have a chat in the pub. And this. It's the same thing using technology, and that's where people fall foul of it.” — Ian Wishart [08:06]

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Important Timestamps

• Bulgaria requests EU help on election interference: [01:43 – 04:21]
• Romanian TikTok election surprise anecdote: [03:45 – 04:01]
• Bulgaria’s rapid response request, DSA activation: [04:21 – 04:47]
• Disinformation and social media manipulation: [05:03 – 05:57]
• Commission Signal group security incident: [06:12 – 09:25]
• Commission's cyber hygiene response: [09:40 – 10:36]
• Italy’s football disaster and its politicization: [10:36 – 12:14]

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Summary Table

| Segment | Topic | Notable Quotes | Timestamps | |------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Bulgaria's Elections | EU support requested against Russian interference | "They're concerned about interference, mainly...from Russia."| 01:43-04:21 | | Disinformation | Social Media & Editoriallessness | "It's the wild, wild west out there..." | 05:03-05:57 | | Signal Security | Commission staff targeted; group chat closed | "The content is irrelevant, actually..." | 06:31-10:36 | | Football in Politics | Italy's WC failure; Parliament uproar | "What are you going to do about the state of our football team?" | 10:36-12:14 |

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Final Thoughts

The episode underscores the EU’s acute vulnerability to digital threats—be it state-backed disinformation disrupting democratic processes or sophisticated cyber-attacks challenging even “secure” communication platforms. The hosts’ conversational tone and lived-in knowledge of EU politics bring clarity and urgency to these complex issues, while the football coda illustrates how tightly national identity, politics, and sport are woven together in Europe.

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For further details or to join the conversation, listeners are encouraged to check out the show's new WhatsApp link in the show notes!

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Good morning. It's Thursday, April 2nd, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast. The vibe in town today is insecure as an EU country asks Brussels for help to protect its own election. Also on the pod, the commission has shut down a signal group chat over security fears and Italy has failed to qualify for the FIFA World cup for the third time in a row. And the politicians are seething. Ian.

[A]

Good morning, Zoya. They are obviously, as usual, a lot of massive things going on in the world right now that we've discussed over the last few days with the Middle east and the energy crisis with Donald Trump and NATO. I think we'll return to those next week. But I think it's important that we focus on a few things bit closer to home.

[B]

Yeah, Ian, let's do that.

[A]

You want to introduce yourself first?

[B]

I guess so. Hi, I'm Zoya Shevdolovic. With me today is my boss, senior EU Politics editor Ian Wishard. Hayden. Boss.

[A]

Hello.

[B]

You're going to boss me around. Do my performance review live on air. All right, our first story, it's taking us to Bulgaria, where there is a pretty consequential election coming up. And actually, you know, this is happening right around the same time as the Hungarian election.

[A]

April 19th.

[B]

That's right. Just one week after the Hungarian election. All we've been hearing about is Hungary and we haven't really heard very much about Bulgaria.

[A]

Well, it is their eighth election in five years, so they're probably sick of

[B]

hearing about it now. That's probably a good point. Well, there's been an interesting development. The Foreign Ministry and Sophia has asked the EU to help basically deal with potential attacks of disinformation, misinformation. They're concerned about interference mainly, really, from Russia. So what they've done is they have come to the European External Action Service and said, please help us preemptively. We are concerned about this affecting our vote.

[A]

Yeah. Should we just talk about the election itself, who the main characters are? There's Boyco Borisov, people who know him, him quite a lot in Brussels. He's the center. Right. He's quite hawkish on Russia. His main opponent, Ruman Radef, independent, backed by the socialists, though he's quite cautious On Ukraine, he wants negotiations with Russia. So it's that which we've seen quite a lot in Eastern Europe in elections. It's sort of pro Russia against the anti Russia parties, isn't it?

[B]

Yeah. And there have been a few other major themes in their campaigns. So Ruman Radev, he's running on this kind of anti corruption platform. He's saying I'm going to clean up the mafia links in politics. And that is land. I think he is ahead in the polls, although polling is a little bit patchy, but he's currently ahead in the polls. Boyco Boris of though he's a guy you wouldn't count out, he's won plenty of elections before, so he's a big heavy hitter on that scale. So yeah, there's potentially going to be some complex coalition stuff going on or more gridlock.

[A]

But the big exclusive that Politico broke last night actually is that as you said, Bulgaria has asked the EU for help to, to try to stop interference as they see it, from Russia in the election.

[B]

Yeah. And what they've done is they've had a look at what has happened recently in other countries that are in this kind of region. So we saw the Moldovan elections where there was election interference, allegations of election interference run by the Kremlin and they've looked at that Romanian election, if you remember.

[A]

This was the big one, wasn't it?

[B]

The big one, yeah. Back in, I think it was towards the end of 2024 where we had this absolute no name candidate come from nowhere to win the first round of that election. This was this guy Georgescu who basically rode in on a wave of TikTok ads.

[A]

And obviously Bulgaria are braced for this because their Foreign Ministry set up this temporary unit to coordinate its response to foreign interference just last week. And there was this recent report by the Bulgarian center for the Study of Democracy which said Bulgaria basically is. Is one of the most permissive information environments for manipulation in the eu.

[B]

Yeah, I mean it's got a lot of problems. Bulgaria has also asked the European Commission to step in. So they've asked to activate this rapid response system under the Digital Services act, which is that EU law that governs this kind of tech arena. And the commission has started the process, has brought in Meta, Google, TikTok to have a chat, figure out what needs to happen. And they're talking about monitoring disinformation in real time, trying to disrupt those campaigns before they really take hold.

[A]

It's just one of those, just the latest examples that this is a different world now, and perhaps it's been a different world since the Ukraine invasion, but certainly since Trump's return to the White House and the Ukraine war, you see this real pressure on countries in Eastern Europe.

[B]

You do. And I mean, you see that pressure everywhere, Ian, because many people get all of their information from social media. The standards on social media when it comes to like editorial independence and, you know, editorial standards in general, ethical standards pretty much non existent. It's basically really the wild, wild west out there and the Commission is trying to do something about it.

[A]

I mean, you say it's the wild West. Some of the allegations are actually, this is very coordinated and very sophisticated by Russia.

[B]

Oh, I think that's absolutely true. And we saw it as far back, look, we've seen it in the Philippines, we've seen it in Ukraine, we've seen it in so many places ahead of elections, these campaigns that are run from various places. It's not always Russia, sometimes it's China and sometimes it's both of them. And so I think that's really what the concern is. But actually, Ian, this takes us to our second story, which is kind of related to this one.

[A]

Yeah, Zoya, this is one you've been reporting on, so you can tell us a lot about this. There are some really senior commission officials who were using a group chat in the messaging app signal suddenly shut down. Risk of, or worries about anyway that it was intercepted in some way.

[B]

Yeah, so this was a couple of weeks ago. Look, it was a pretty anodyne group chat. You know, we're all in them where people are like wishing each other happy birthday.

[A]

Nothing anodyne about my group chat.

[B]

Oh, God, who are you burning, Ian? Who. Who's in Ian Wishart's Burn book? But look, it was, you know, people wishing each other happy birthday, sending photos of holidays, dogs, cats, that sort of.

[A]

The content is irrelevant, actually, because it shows just what's possible.

[B]

Exactly. And this is the thing. So the fear was basically, look, it's not an accident that this has happened. Now there have been a series of stuff, cyber attacks targeting the European Commission and there has been this concerted effort by. We don't know exactly who, but, you know, we can have some guesses and they start with R and end in shah. And there's some suspicion that basically the Kremlin has been directing this giant attempt to intercept officials phones, European officials, but not just EU officials. We've also had warnings in Britain and various other countries saying that they have been sending these very specific text messages via signal where they've asked people to enter their PIN code to confirm their login. And the hope is that people are going to enter that PIN code and then the hackers will have access to their Signal account.

[A]

And that's terrifying, isn't it? Particularly as people get told signal is safer than WhatsApp or safer than other apps.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I think that whether it's true or not.

[B]

Well, I think it probably is safer, but not if you give someone your pin. And I think that's kind of what this phishing is about. So, look, the use of WhatsApp and Signal is super widespread in these.

[A]

And why wouldn't senior Commission officials use it? Because they're just like anyone else.

[B]

Yeah. And they need to, you know, exchange information, invite each other to group hangs and chat about their bosses like the rest of us on the Brussels team talk about you, Ian. And we need.

[A]

We need to tighten things up too, though.

[B]

But we need those sorts of outlets, you know, we need to be able to speak freely as reporters.

[A]

In the old days, you would just come and speak, you know, in the corridor or have a chat in the pub. And this. It's the same thing using technology, and that's where people fall foul of it.

[B]

We're all guilty of using these apps. We all kind of use them to some extent. But now there are these questions being raised about, okay, do we need to use these apps? And particularly, are there certain things that we don't need to use these apps for?

[A]

So people in the Commission have told you that the Commission is tightening things up. They've seen these apps as vulnerable, basically.

[B]

Yeah, they've identified that they are vulnerable, particularly because I've spoken to multiple, many Commission officials who've said, yeah, I've received one of these text messages or someone I know has received it. Now, what I should say is this group chat does not appear to have been compromised. I've spoken to people who've said, look, we don't think that anyone has clicked on one of these links in that group chat. But the fear was that, you know, the more you use these apps, particularly large groups of people using these apps, it's easy to add the wrong person or someone gets a new phone number and all of a sudden you've got some random in your group with every DG or most DGs. So that's kind of the fear because you can't control who's in them, you can't control whose phone numbers are there. And, you know, there's that famous case of when, when there was the signal Gate in the US where the very, very confidential secret war plans were revealed to the Atlantic editor in chief, because he got added to a signal group by accident.

[A]

And this comes after, I think, the commission acknowledged they were investigating a more widespread attack on its website, which is obviously a completely separate issue, but it just puts in the spotlight, really, all these places where people are worried about what can be read or what can be heard.

[B]

Yeah. And actually, earlier this year, so one of the cyber attacks at has reported on, has investigated, they said at the time, this was back in January, that some personal details were taken during that attack. So one wonders if perhaps some mobile numbers were taken. And that's the source of this signal attack. Now, that's speculation. We can't. We can't say for sure. I don't think anyone can, but certainly that's the worry. So there is some stuff the commission is doing. They've launched cybersecurity assessments. They're reviewing messaging practices across services. They're giving new advice and saying, don't use these messaging apps unless you absolutely have to use Signal. If you have to use an app, don't click on these links. And they replace devices pretty regularly for officials as well, to make sure that if there is a problem, that they can limit the fallout. But it really is a huge kind of deal because every official out there could be susceptible to these sorts of phishing attempts.

[A]

So, Zoya, should we talk about football? I know you're very excited about that, about the World Cup.

[B]

Oh, I am at the edge of my seat. Do you know what I heard, Ian?

[A]

What?

[B]

There was a match between Sweden and Poland to qualify for the World cup. And Sweden won and Poland is out.

[A]

That's correct.

[B]

And did you know that in our booth we have one Pole and one Swede?

[A]

And that's why they haven't spoken to each other all day.

[B]

Exactly. The Pole is crying. Tears. Tears. Dionis, I'm really sorry.

[A]

I couldn't care less.

[B]

Saga. I'm ecstatic. There's a reason why we're talking about this, actually, and it's political, because at

[A]

the same time, the night before last, there was a match between Italy and Bosnia Herzegovina. And it's fair to say that the Italians didn't take it very well that they lost and they're not qualified for the World Cup.

[B]

Oh, my God. Again, isn't this. How many times have they failed to qualify?

[A]

Now, they last appeared at the World cup in 2014, I think, and they haven't actually won a knockout match in the World cup since 2006. But the reason we're talking about it, because this isn't a sports podcast, it's a politics podcast. It was the first question raised yesterday morning in the Italian Parliament. What are you going to do about the state of our football team?

[B]

Is it just to make them less shit?

[A]

That is probably the gist of it, yeah.

[B]

Why is this political, is my question. Only in Italy could they make.

[A]

It's such a big cultural thing, isn't it? In Italy, if the football team is failing, then you feel your country is failing. You feel your politicians are failing. So Meloni, the Prime Minister's party, the Brothers of Italy, and her coalition partners, basically demanded an explanation from the sports minister and the opposition in Italy. Basically saying, you're scapegoating all these people. Actually, it's you, the government. It's your fault. You should be giving more money and you should be putting more resources into football, I think is the idea.

[B]

Well, it all comes down to money, money, money. Comes down to politics and money and politics and money. Right, folks, a programming note. We are off Easter Monday, so you'll be hearing next from us on Tuesday. But there is going to be an episode of EU Confidential, so don't worry, you're not going to get nothing. Speaking of Easter, Ian, do you have a favorite Easter egg?

[A]

Favorite Easter egg?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

No.

[B]

So you don't watch films and you don't eat Easter eggs?

[A]

No. No.

[B]

You're like a monk.

[A]

I live a very puritanical life. Yeah.

[B]

Also, folks, we've got a fantastic new feature in our show Notes. Ian.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So basically, I don't even know what

[A]

the show notes are. What does that mean?

[B]

Have you never listened to our podcast?

[A]

Yeah. You keep on saying show notes every day. I don't know what that means.

[B]

It's the notes on sp. Spotify. You click on the thing and it's got notes. It says, you know, Zoya, Ian Wishart, say some stuff.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And here's our phone number.

[A]

That's good to know. Well, now I don't even need to know the number.

[B]

You don't need to know the number because there's a link now. And if you click on that link, it'll take you straight into your WhatsApp, into our feed. You can send us a message. It's easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[A]

I might do that, then.

[B]

Ian, I'm gonna miss you over Easter.

[A]

Thanks.

[B]

I finally did it, people. I've knocked the life out of him. Well, it's not just Ian I'm gonna miss. I'm Gonna Ms. Our two producers, Dionis Storis and Saga Ringma. We couldn't do it without you guys. I'm really pleased I don't have to see any of you people for four text.