Albert Rivera's WhatsApp account has been hacked . The leader of Citizens reported his case to the Civil Guard last Friday, as this newspaper has learned. The Telematic Crime Unit of the UCO will be responsible for investigating the hacking , but for now the damage to the politician is already done. The formation has also confirmed the telematic attack.
Rivera has been the victim of one of the latest attacks that have become fashionable against the messaging application: a message-trap. The message, received by the politician in his account, broadly warned of what eventually happened: that someone had tried to access his WhatsApp profile from another device. To give more credibility to the deception, the message is accompanied by location and time data of the suspected frustrated attack. The auction is to ask the victim to send a code to that same chat in which the alert has been received to "verify" their identity.
From that moment, the attackers take control of the hacked account and can do whatever they want with it. The first thing they did was block Rivera himself by changing passwords so he could not regain control.
The attacker activated from a remote device a lock code and an email only known to him, so that the president of Citizens was left without his account.
On Saturday night, a Twitter group identified as "Anonymous Catalonia" (@anonktalonia) wrote Rivera directly this message: "Albertito, what the hell does a group called" La Manada "on your Whatsapp?".
They also sent tweets about two other groups in which Rivera allegedly shares messages with more people: "Operation Gaviota Rosa" and "Europe high level only", accompanied by sarcastic comments.
The first of the messages, which refers to the alleged chat called "La Manada", is also illustrated with a screenshot, although the image is invaluable to know on which phone that group was created. Nor have they acknowledged having been the authors of the hacking , as they do on other occasions with groups related to Anonymous.
By mid-afternoon this Sunday, the account had been suspended by Twitter administrators.
In any case, if the attackers wanted to create a WhatsApp group named in Rivera's account, they could do it without any problem, and that is what most worries investigators of these types of crimes: the vulnerability of politicians, businessmen, police officers or other public figures before these attacks.
Keep in mind that the control of a WhatsApp account allows attackers to send messages to the contacts of the affected and that could cause very complicated situations for some.
Therefore, among the best advice that can be given in these cases is never responding to the messages received with that code that they require, but also not deleting them, to have proof of the number from which they have written if necessary report.
The one in his account is not the first telematic problem that Rivera has had. In January last year, police arrested a man who had posted death threats against the politician on Facebook.
Deputy Miguel Gutiérrez, spokesman for Citizens in Congress, confirmed the attack and explained that hacks like this are threats, but not only for the president of his party: "Every time the world of technology is more full of threats and what it has happened to Rivera, it can happen to everyone, even if he is not a politician. That is why we believe that surveillance by the Ministry of the Interior must be reinforced against such crimes, and it must be made clear that these are crimes, and therefore we must denounce them. It must also be said that many professionals in the police forces are missing to fight against these activities, and they also need more means. This is the criticism we can make, but the same as we do when we say that police are missing in the streets. A government has to protect its citizens. "
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