The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Meta, has revealed that it has seen possible hacking efforts directed at US government WhatsApp accounts under the Trump and Biden administrations. The same Iranian hacker outfit that was previously connected to hacks into the Trump campaign was blamed by the business for these attempts.
The attempts were referred to by Meta in a blog post as “a small cluster of likely social engineering activity on WhatsApp,” with the accounts posing as AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft technical help. After users reported these accounts as suspicious, Meta stopped them, but it has not discovered any proof that the targeted WhatsApp accounts were compromised.
Meta linked APT42, an Iranian hacker group, to attempts to hack US presidential campaigns. The group is known for invading mobile phones with surveillance software, recording calls, and stealing text messages. Targets include public figures, business executives, and political and diplomatic personnel in the US, UK, Iran, Israel, and Palestinian territories.
Iranian organisations tried to breach the official WhatsApp accounts of Biden and Trump
