Iranian cyber attackers focus on hacking WhatsApp accounts of affiliated individuals within the Biden and Trump administrations, according to Meta.
"This harmful action stemmed from Iran and endeavored to impact individuals in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the U.S., and the U.K.)," Meta declared in a statement, indicating that the main objective was on "political officials and diplomats, along with other prominent figures, including some linked to the administrations of President Biden and former President Trump."
This fresh revelation by Meta extends the catalog of attempts by hackers supported by Iran to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Fairly recently, Google disclosed that an alleged Iranian hacking operation was still active and extensive, targeting U.S. presidential campaigns, following Google's announcement of unsuccessful login attempts to the email accounts of individuals connected to Biden, Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns.
On Monday, U.S. intelligence agencies acknowledged a connection between Iran and an instance of a hack and leak operation aimed at Trump’s campaign, with hackers exploiting access to Roger Stone's email account to attempt entering another campaign official's account.
When questioned about the recent alleged hacking attempts, the FBI referred to a statement from Monday.
The intelligence community "is convinced that the Iranians have, utilizing social engineering and other methods, attempted to gain access to individuals with direct contact with the presidential campaigns of both political parties," the FBI and other agencies said on Monday in a joint statement.
Meta concluded that its examination linked the attempts to a group dubbed "APT42," notorious for utilizing phishing techniques to swipe passwords for people's digital accounts.
Meta's security squad intercepted a group of fraudulent accounts posing as support representatives for various tech firms, an activity they attributed to APT42.
"We haven't unearthed proof of the targeted WhatsApp accounts being compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, we're making our findings public, in addition to discussing them with law enforcement and our commercial peers," the tech company stated.
CNN attempted to obtain comments from both the White House and the Trump campaign.
This fresh revelation by Meta suggests that Iranian-supported hackers are aiming to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential politics through cyberattacks. The intelligence community has also acknowledged past attempts by Iran to gain access to presidential campaign officials, as seen in the case of Roger Stone's email account.
