Meta Closes WhatsApp Account of Iranian Hacker Targeting US Elections

Todaysgist.com, Jakarta – Meta blocked WhatsApp accounts involved in a cluster of social engineering activities that may have occurred on the platform, targeting the US election.

Meta tracked the activities of an Iranian hacking group called APT42 (also known as UNC788 and Mint Sandstorm), which the FBI has previously linked to a phishing campaign targeting members of the camps of US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The company revealed suspicious activity on WhatsApp, which attempted to target many people in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The activity also appears to have focused on political and diplomatic officials, including people associated with both presidential candidates, as quoted by Engadget, Monday (8/26/2024).

WhatsApp attackers pretended to be technical support representatives from AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, though Meta did not say how they tried to compromise their targets’ accounts.

A number of those targets reported the activity to the company, which prompted it to launch an investigation.