Meta said on Friday that an Iranian hacker group targeted the WhatsApp accounts of people associated with the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
In a report, Meta said it blocked a “small cluster” of WhatsApp accounts that were posing as technical support for tech companies including Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo. Meta said they linked the activity to the Iranian group APT42, which is known for targeting political officials and other public figures.
“This malicious activity originated in Iran and attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the UK,” Meta said. “This effort appeared to have focused on political and diplomatic officials, and other public figures, including some associated with administrations of President Biden and former President Trump.”
However, Meta added it did not have evidence any accounts were compromised.
The report comes less than a week after U.S. intelligence agencies issued a joint statement saying Iran was behind the Aug. 10 hack of Trump’s campaign. The hack led to multiple media outlets receiving private campaign materials from an anonymous source.
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The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they were “confident” Iranians have made other attempts to target both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns, and that Iran’s efforts to affect this year’s election have become “increasingly aggressive.”
Meta said it shared information about this new activity with law enforcement and presidential campaigns due to the “heightened threat environment” ahead of the November election.
