Meta (Facebook’s parent company) said it identified possible hacking attempts on the WhatsApp accounts of US officials from the Biden and Trump administrations.
It blamed the Iranian hacker group APT42, which was previously revealed to have compromised the Trump campaign.
The attempts involved accounts posing as tech support from companies like AOL, Google, and Yahoo. No accounts were actually compromised.
APT42 is believed to be associated with an Iranian military intelligence division known for surveillance software that can record calls, texts, and turn on cameras/mics.
Iran denied having any motive to interfere in the US election when previously asked about these groups.
Meta linked it to hacking efforts reported earlier by Microsoft and Google targeting US presidential campaigns ahead of the 2020 election.
The targets appeared to be political and diplomatic officials as well as public figures in countries like Israel, Palestine, Iran, UK and US associated with the Biden and Trump administrations.
Source: Reuters
