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Iranian hackers have attacked WhatsApp accounts of Biden and Trump administration officials: Meta
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Iranian hackers have attacked WhatsApp accounts of Biden and Trump administration officials: Meta

Iranian hackers have attacked WhatsApp accounts of Biden and Trump administration officials: Meta

Washington: The same Iranian hacking group that is believed to have attacked both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns also attempted to hack the WhatsApp accounts of staffers from the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, Meta Platforms reported Friday.

Meta said it discovered the network of hackers posing as tech support agents for companies including Microsoft and Google after individuals who received the suspicious WhatsApp messages reported them. Meta’s researchers linked the activity to the same network blamed for the hacking incident reported by the Trump campaign.

The FBI said this week that an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign and an attempted break-in into the Biden-Harris campaign were part of a broader Iranian effort to influence the US presidential election.

A statement Friday from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said the hackers had attempted to target the WhatsApp accounts of individuals in the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as political and diplomatic officials “including unidentified officials associated with the Trump and Biden administrations. A “small cluster” of accounts were blocked by Meta, the company said.

“We have not seen evidence that the WhatsApp accounts targeted in the attack were compromised, but as a precaution, we are sharing our findings publicly and sharing information with law enforcement and industry partners,” Meta said in a statement.

According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Iran has multiple motivations for its increasingly aggressive use of cyberattacks and disinformation: to confuse and polarize voters to undermine confidence in American democracy, to undermine support for Israel, and to oppose candidates Iran believes will increase tensions between Washington and Iran.

Iran has vowed revenge against Trump, whose administration terminated a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

In July, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said the Iranian government was providing covert support to U.S. protests against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza. Groups with ties to Iran posed as online activists, encouraged campus protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.

Messages left with the Trump and Harris campaigns were not immediately returned Friday.