Iranian hackers targeted Biden,Trump staffers
August 24, 2024
Meta on Friday cautioned US presidential campaigns after it was discovered that a network of hackers linked to Iran was responsible for "malicious activity" on the WhatsApp messaging service.
"Our investigation linked this activity to APT42, an Iranian threat actor known for its persistent phishing campaigns across the internet targeting political and diplomatic officials, and other public figures," the tech giant said.
Meta added that some officials associated with the administrations of US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had been targeted.
The company said it had not seen evidence of the targeted WhatsApp accounts being compromised.
"Given the heightened threat environment ahead of the US election, we also shared information about this malicious activity with law enforcement and with the presidential campaigns to encourage them to stay cautious against potential adversarial targeting," Meta said.
Google's threat intelligence, in a report this month, said that the same Iranian group — which is associated with the country's Revolutionary Guard — had tried to breach the personal email accounts of about a dozen people linked to Biden and Trump since May.
The report came days after Microsoft released a study that uncovered suspected cyber interference from Iran in the 2024 presidential election.
Hackers posed as support agents
WhatsApp accounts linked to the hacking group sent messages posing as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, Meta said.
The company's security teams blocked a "small cluster" of WhatsApp accounts pretending to be support agents for tech companies.
"This malicious activity originated in Iran and attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States and the UK," Meta, which owns WhatApp, Facebook and Instagram, reported.
Earlier this week, the FBI said that an Iran-linked hack of the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign was part of a larger Iranian effort to meddle with the US presidential election.
dvv/rc (AFP, AP, dpa)