Iran groups attempted to hack Biden, Trump official whatsapp accounts

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has reported that it detected potential hacking attempts targeting WhatsApp accounts of U.S. officials from both the Biden and Trump administrations. The company attributed these attempts to the same Iranian hacker group previously linked to breaches in the Trump campaign.

In a blog post, Meta described the attempts as “a small cluster of likely social engineering activity on WhatsApp,” involving accounts impersonating technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Meta blocked these accounts after users flagged them as suspicious and has not found evidence that the targeted WhatsApp accounts were compromised.

Meta linked the activity to APT42, a hacking group believed to be connected to an Iranian military intelligence division known for installing surveillance software on victims’ mobile phones, which can record calls, steal text messages, and activate cameras and microphones.

The blog post noted that the group’s activity was related to attempts to breach U.S. presidential campaigns, as reported by Microsoft and Google earlier this month. While Meta did not specify the individuals targeted, it indicated that they were political and diplomatic officials, business leaders, and other public figures associated with both Biden and Trump administrations, residing in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Iran, the U.S., and the U.K.