The same Iranian hacker group that’s believed to have targeted the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns attempted to access the WhatsApp accounts of employees of the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms said on Friday.
Meta said It discovered the hackers’ networkwho posed as technical support representatives for firms equivalent to Microsoft and Google after individuals who received the suspicious WhatsApp messages reported them. Meta investigators linked the activity to the identical network blamed for the hacking attack reported by the Trump campaign.
The FBI this week said an Iranian hacking of the Trump campaign and an attempted break-in into the Biden-Harris campaign were a part of a broader Iranian effort to interfere within the U.S. presidential election.
In a press release on Friday, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said the hackers attempted to attack the WhatsApp accounts of individuals within the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom, in addition to political and diplomatic officials – including unidentified officials from the Trump and Biden administrations. A “small group” of accounts have been blocked by Meta, the corporate said.
“We have not seen any evidence that the targeted WhatsApp accounts were compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, we are sharing our findings publicly and also sharing information with law enforcement and our industry colleagues,” Meta said in a press release.
US intelligence agencies say Iran increasingly aggressive The use of cyberattacks and disinformation has several motives: to confuse and polarize voters to undermine faith in U.S. democracy; to erode support for Israel; and to oppose candidates it believes will escalate tensions between Washington and Iran.
Iran has vowed revenge on Trump, whose government ended the nuclear agreement with Iranre-imposed sanctions and ordered killing an Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
In July, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said the Iranian government had provided covert support for American protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Iran-linked groups posed as online activists, encouraging Protests on campus and financially supported some protest groups, Haines said.
Messages left with Trump and Harris’ campaign teams weren’t immediately returned Friday.
