Washington.- The same Iranian hacking group blamed for cyberattacks on the Democratic and Republican party campaign teams attempted to hack the WhatsApp accounts of officials in the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms said on Friday.
Meta said it discovered the network of hackers, who posed as tech support agents for companies including Microsoft and Google, after people who received suspicious WhatsApp messages reported them. Meta researchers linked the incident to the same network blamed for the cyberattack reported by the Trump campaign.
The FBI said this week that the Iranian cyberattack on the Trump campaign and the attempted infiltration of the Biden-Harris campaign were part of a broader Iranian plan to interfere in the US presidential election.
A statement released Friday by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said hackers had attempted to target the WhatsApp accounts of people in the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as officials and diplomats, including unidentified officials linked to the Trump and Biden administrations. Meta said it had blocked a “small number” of accounts.
“We have not seen evidence that the targeted WhatsApp accounts have been compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, we are sharing our findings publicly, in addition to sharing the information with law enforcement and other companies,” Meta said in a statement.
U.S. intelligence officials say Iran’s increasingly aggressive use of cyberattacks and disinformation is motivated by several things: confusing and polarizing voters to undermine confidence in American democracy, eroding support for Israel and opposing candidates it sees as likely to exacerbate tensions between Washington and Iran.
The Trump and Harris campaigns did not immediately respond to messages left Friday.
#Iranian #hackers #targeted #WhatsApp #accounts #Biden #Trump #officials #Meta #claims