Meta said Friday that it blocked a "small cluster" of WhatsApp accounts linked to an Iranian hacking group that was targeting officials associated with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The company said in a blog post that the bogus WhatsApp accounts appeared to originate from the Iranian threat actor dubbed APT42, which other tech companies like Google previously described as an "Iranian state-sponsored cyber espionage actor."
Meta said its security team was able to spot APT42's involvement after analyzing suspicious messages that an unspecified number of users reported receiving from the fraudulent WhatsApp accounts.
"These accounts posed as technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft," Meta said in the blog post.
In 2019, Microsoft said it had identified several hackers linked to the Iranian government who were believed to have targeted an unspecified U.S. presidential campaign in addition to other government officials and media.
Persons:
Meta, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Biden, Trump, APT42
Organizations:
Google, Meta, Facebook, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Tech
Locations:
Israel, Palestine, Iran