Meta: Iranian Hackers Tried to Hack WhatsApp of Trump and Biden Officials
Meta reports new possible attempts to hack WhatsApp accounts of officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden.
A blog post from the company, which owns social media sites Facebook and Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp, described the attempt as “a small series of possible social engineering attacks on WhatsApp.” The hackers attempted to impersonate technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
The company suspended the accounts after users reported suspicious activity and saw no evidence that the targeted WhatsApp accounts had been hacked.
Meta attributed the activity to the hacker group APT42, which is believed to be linked to the Iranian military’s intelligence unit and is known for installing surveillance software on its victims’ mobile phones. According to researchers tracking the group, the software allows them to record calls, steal text messages, and silently turn on cameras and microphones.
The company linked the Iranian hacking group to attempts to hack US presidential campaigns ahead of the US presidential election. Microsoft and Google also reported the same earlier this month.
The Meta blog does not name the people who were targeted. But it says the hackers "appear to have targeted political, diplomatic, business and public figures, including those associated with the Trump administration
