Meta said Friday that it blocked a “small cluster” of WhatsApp accounts linked to an Iranian hacking group that was targeting officials associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The company said in a blog post that the bogus WhatsApp accounts appeared to originate from the Iranian threat actor dubbed APT42, which other tech companies like Google previously described as an “Iranian state-sponsored cyber espionage actor.”
Meta said the scheme was intended to exploit “political and diplomatic officials, and other public figures, including some associated with administrations of President Biden and former President Trump.”
Meta said its security team was able to spot APT42’s involvement after analyzing suspicious messages that an unspecified number of users reported receiving from the fraudulent WhatsApp accounts.
“These accounts posed as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft,” Meta said in the blog post.
“Some of the people targeted by APT42 reported these suspicious messages to WhatsApp using our in-app reporting tools.”
The Trump campaign said earlier this month that a foreign actor had compromised its network and illegally obtained internal communications.
In 2019, Microsoft said it had identified several hackers linked to the Iranian government who were believed to have targeted an unspecified U.S. presidential campaign in addition to other government officials and media.
Meta announced on Friday that it had blocked a “small cluster” of WhatsApp accounts connected to an Iranian hacker collective that was targeting individuals connected to both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
In a blog post, the company stated that the fake WhatsApp accounts seemed to come from the Iranian threat actor known as APT42, which Google and other tech giants had previously referred to as a “state-sponsored cyber espionage actor from Iran.”. The group has targeted media outlets, non-governmental organizations, and a variety of activists.
The plan, according to Meta, was to take advantage of “political and diplomatic officials, and other public figures, including some associated with administrations of President Biden and former President Trump.”. Additionally, the campaign targeted citizens of Iran, Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. G.
Facebook was used for political purposes in the last two presidential campaigns, and this is why Meta is garnering more public attention with 75 days left before the election in November. According to the company, there is no proof that any WhatsApp user’s account has been hacked, and it is providing additional information to “law enforcement and our industry peers.”. “.”.
After examining suspicious messages that a certain number of users claimed to have received from the phony WhatsApp accounts, Meta said that its security team was able to identify APT42’s involvement.
In the blog post, Meta stated, “These accounts posed as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.”. Using our in-app reporting tools, some of the individuals targeted by APT42 reported these dubious messages to WhatsApp. “.
Earlier this month, the Trump campaign claimed that an outside party had infiltrated its network and illicitly obtained internal emails. Microsoft also disclosed at the time that it had discovered multiple Iranian hacking groups trying to influence the U.S. S. the June presidential election, and that an organization connected to APT42 “sent a spear phishing email from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”. “. .
Microsoft declared in 2019 that it had discovered multiple Iranian government-affiliated hackers who were allegedly targeting an unidentified U.S. s. presidential campaign in addition to other public servants and journalists.
