Meta says Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of Biden

Meta says Iranian hackers targeted WhatsApp accounts of Biden is profiled by BTW Media because published evidence links it to internet infrastructure, governance, operational dependencies, or market visibility.

• The same Iranian hacking group believed to be targeting the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns tried to track the WhatsApp accounts of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s administration staff, Meta Platforms said on Friday.
• Iran’s hacking of the Trump campaign and attempted intrusion into the Biden-Harris campaign were part of a broader effort by Iran to meddle in the U.S. presidential election, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said this week.

OUR TAKE
Meta investigators have linked these activities to the same network blamed for the hacks reported by the Trump campaign. The attempted intrusion against the campaign is part of a wider effort by Iran to interfere in the US presidential election, and this incident will affect more than just the security of information about the US election All organisations and individuals must be vigilant in protecting personal information and preventing it from being misused by unscrupulous individuals to cause irreparable damage.
— Iydia Ding, BTW reporter

What happened

The same Iranian hacking group believed to be targeting the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns attempted to track the WhatsApp accounts of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump‘s administration staff, Meta Platforms said Friday.

Meta said it discovered the hacker network after receiving individual reports of suspicious WhatsApp messages from hackers posing as tech support agents for companies such as AOL, Microsoft, and Google, among others. Meta’s investigators linked the activity to the same network blamed for the hacks reported by the Trump campaign.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said this week that the Iranian hacking of the Trump campaign and the attempted intrusion into the Biden-Harris campaign were part of a broader effort by Iran to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement Friday that hackers tried to target the WhatsApp accounts of individuals and political and diplomatic officials in the Middle East, the U.S. and the U.K. – including unidentified officials associated with the Trump and Biden administrations. The company said Meta blocked “a small group” of accounts.

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Why it’s important

We have seen no evidence of theft from targeted WhatsApp accounts, but out of an abundance of caution, we are sharing our findings publicly in addition to sharing information with law enforcement and our industry peers,” Meta said in a statement. In a report this month, Google’s Threat Intelligence unit said the same Iranian group linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guards has been trying to infiltrate the personal email accounts of about a lot of people linked to Biden and Trump since May.

Meta’s investigators linked the activities to the same network blamed for the hacks reported by the Trump campaign. The attempted intrusion against the campaign team is part of a wider effort by Iran to interfere in the US presidential election, and this incident will impact more than just the security of information about the US election. All organisations and individuals must be vigilant in protecting personal information and preventing it from being misused by unscrupulous individuals to cause irreparable damage.