Meta Platforms – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has revealed that Iranian-linked hackers pretended to be tech support on the WhatsApp messaging app to target people associated with the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The company disclosed this on Aug. 23, commenting that the incident provides the latest evidence of Iran’s attempts to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Meta also said that it blocked several WhatsApp accounts linked to a group of hackers affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Microsoft and Google also recently announced that the IRGC had tried email phishing attacks on those linked to people such as Trump, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to Meta, there's no evidence suggesting that the targeted WhatsApp accounts were compromised. However, the company added that it has shared information with law enforcement and other tech companies.
Meta warned that the hackers on WhatsApp pretended to be technical support for companies like AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Using a technique called social engineering, the hackers tried to convince targets to reveal sensitive information, such as account passwords.
The company also warned that the hackers have targeted "political and diplomatic officials, business and other public figures" in Iran, Israel, Palestine, the United Kingdom and the United States. The hacker group is famous for using phishing and other attacks to compromise targets, including those it considers political enemies of Iran, dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.
Washington reveals Tehran trying to hack GOP, Democratic presidential campaigns
Earlier in August, the U.S. government reported that Iran has been trying to hack both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns in an attempt to influence the November elections. (Related: Kamala Harris calls for renewal of so-called “assault weapons” ban to hurriedly DISARM Americans before the election.)
In a joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that Iran believes the 2024 U.S. elections will be "particularly consequential in terms of the impact they could have on its national security interests, increasing Tehran’s inclination to try to shape the outcome."
The agencies also warned that they have observed "increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle," particularly concerning "operations targeting the American public and cyber operations targeting Presidential campaigns."
The Trump campaign has claimed that Iran was behind the leak of internal documents to news outlets, a matter that the FBI is investigating. On the other hand, the Harris campaign says it was warned by the FBI in July that it had been targeted by a foreign influence operation, adding that it is not aware of any security breaches.
Masih Alinejad, a U.S.-based Iranian journalist who has been the target of several assassination or kidnapping plots, revealed that she receives text messages and emails almost daily from hackers trying to access her phone. According to Alinejad, hackers are relentless because she has the biggest social media platform among all opposition leaders and opposition activists.
The FBI has already investigated an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign and an alleged Iranian plot to kill the candidate for the current election cycle. They may be separate activities, but U.S. officials have advised that they may come from a very "desperate regime."
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Watch the video below to learn more about ballot harvesting, a critical component to winning the 2024 U.S. elections.
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