Portugal's defence minister Nuno Melo says hackers impersonated him on WhatsApp

The disclosure

Nuno Melo, Portugal's Minister of National Defence, made the attack public in statements to the Lusa news agency in Athens on Monday, 2 November. He said his personal phone had been breached, allowing third parties to use his number, send messages in his name and divert communications. According to what he was told, the attackers exploited vulnerabilities in the device, which could no longer install software updates. Melo said the intruders duplicated his contacts and used WhatsApp to send messages posing as him. He said the situation was resolved by replacing the handset.

Parliament questions

On Thursday, 5 November, Melo was questioned in the Assembleia da República during the detailed debate on the 2027 State Budget proposal. Nuno Simões de Melo, a deputy from Chega, criticised him for not ensuring that his equipment offered the greatest reliability and security, suggesting that the government and the minister's office had not shown that concern. Melo replied that no one, including government members, is immune to such intrusions. He added that he had been targeted as a member of the European Parliament despite security measures, and that governments in Spain, the Netherlands and the United States had also been hit.

Melo answered the criticism directly.

“The honourable deputy may consider himself anointed by God and invulnerable with regard to the equipment he uses, but I assure you he is not.”

Melo said he made the case public for 'pedagogical' reasons, warning that many Portuguese do not know that iPhones which cannot be updated can be targeted. In the same budget debate, the Socialist Party (PS) argued that the rise in defence investment is due to Putin and Trump, and accused the minister of 'fanfarronice', or bravado.

Cybersecurity authorities

The National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) said it had been notified of the attack on the minister's personal phone, which has since been replaced. Working with the Judicial Police, it said mitigation measures suited to this kind of incident had been applied. The CNCS did not say whether the breach put sensitive defence matters or the minister's personal information at risk. The Ministry of National Defence, questioned by Lusa, declined to give further detail, including whether any information was compromised or whether NATO and EU allies had been informed. The Cidadãos pela Cibersegurança initiative called for the government to provide clarification, citing the security of state communications and raising the possibility of espionage because the phone belonged to a minister.

Government position

The Minister of the Presidency, Leitão Amaro, told parliament in the week of 2 November that the government follows the same procedures applied by NATO countries and European Union governments to protect communications among their members. He confirmed that the handset was Melo's personal phone. Whether the attackers accessed any data has not been answered in the statements issued so far.