On Friday, Meta reported that it had detected potential hacking attempts on the WhatsApp accounts of U.S. officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations. The company attributed these attempts to the same Iranian hacker group recently exposed for breaching the Trump campaign.
In a blog post, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, described the incident as a “small cluster of likely social engineering activity on WhatsApp.” This involved accounts posing as technical support from AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Meta blocked these accounts after users flagged them as suspicious but noted that there was no evidence suggesting that the targeted WhatsApp accounts had been compromised.
Meta linked the activity to APT42, a hacking group believed to be connected to an Iranian military intelligence division known for deploying surveillance software on victims’ mobile phones. This software can record calls, steal text messages, and remotely activate cameras and microphones, according to researchers.
The company also connected this group’s activities to reported attempts to breach U.S. presidential campaigns, as noted by Microsoft and Google earlier this month, ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Meta’s blog post did not specify the individuals targeted, mentioning only that the hackers seemed to focus on political and diplomatic officials, as well as business and public figures associated with both the Biden and Trump administrations.
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