Meta exposes and blocks Iranian hackers targeting US politics via WhatsApp

Meta announced on August 23 that it has blocked “a small cluster” of WhatsApp accounts tied to APT42, an Iranian government-backed hacking group.

APT42 has been implicated by US officials in hacking into Trump campaign email accounts, Caliber.Az reports referring to foreign media.

Meta’s blog post indicated that the Iranian-linked accounts were likely used for social engineering, with the hackers impersonating tech support from companies like AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. This tactic is often used to steal high-value credentials, but in this instance, the attempts were flagged by victims using WhatsApp’s reporting tools.

The targeted individuals were from Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Meta believes these activities were part of Iranian efforts to interfere in US politics and the upcoming presidential election.

Meta reported no evidence of compromised accounts and stated that its information “suggests” the attempts were unsuccessful.

This action follows recent reports of Iranian attempts to influence the US presidential election. Microsoft and Google have both reported Iranian hacking efforts aimed at individuals associated with the Trump and Biden campaigns. Additionally, US intelligence agencies have indicated that Iranian hackers targeted the Trump campaign, vice presidential candidate JD Vance, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.