Meta reveals Iranian hackers targeted Trump, Biden staffers' WhatsApp accounts

Meta Platforms on Friday claimed the same group of Iranian hackers that targeted former President Donald Trump's and the Biden-Harris presidential campaigns, have also tried to hack campaign staffers on WhatsApp. 

The Trump campaign said on Aug. 10 that it was notified by Microsoft that Iran hacked one of its websites, and the FBI launched an investigation into the reported hack last week. The FBI then confirmed Monday that Iran was behind the hacks, and was trying to disrupt both presidential campaigns.

Meta said it was notified by the staffers after they received a suspicious message on the platform from people posing as support agents for AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. An internal investigation then linked the activity to the same group blamed for the other hacking incident.

“We have not seen evidence of the targeted WhatsApp accounts being compromised, but out of an abundance of caution, we’re sharing our findings publicly, in addition to sharing information with law enforcement and our industry peers,” Meta said in a statement.

Meta Platforms is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 

The FBI said earlier this week that the cyber attacks were intended to influence the 2024 presidential election process.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.