Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of staffers in Biden, Trump administrations, Meta says
The same Iranian hacking group believed to have targeted both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns have tried to go after the WhatsApp accounts of staffers in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — The same Iranian hacking group believed to have targeted both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns tried to go after the WhatsApp accounts of staffers in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms said Friday.
Meta said it discovered the network of hackers, who posed as tech support agents for companies including AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, after individuals who received the suspicious WhatsApp messages reported them. Meta’s investigators linked the activity to the same network blamed for the hacking incident reported by Trump’s campaign.
The FBI this week said a hack by Iran of the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign was part of a broader Iranian effort to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.
A statement Friday from Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, said that the hackers had tried to target the WhatsApp accounts of individuals in the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as political and diplomatic officials — including unidentified officials associated with the Trump and Biden administrations. A “small cluster” of accounts was blocked by Meta, the company said.
