Involved In Hacking Attempts From Iran, Meta Blocks WhatsApp Account

Illustration of the Meta application (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Meta announced it has blocked WhatsApp accounts linked to hacking attempts by a hacking group from Iran, targeting users in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States, and Britain.

Based on the company's investigation, this effort is focused on political and diplomatic officials, as well as other community leaders, including several people linked to President Biden's administration and former President Trump.

"Our investigation links it to APT42 (also known as UNC788 and Mint Sandstorm), the Iranian threat perpetrators known for its continued hostile campaign using basic phishing tactics on the internet to steal people's online account credentials," the company wrote in its latest blog post.

The tech giant also mentioned that in its bid, the fraudster accounts claimed to be technical support from AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Then, several people targeted by APT42 reported the suspicious messages to Meta. Through the report, Meta finally investigated the latest campaign.

"And we are linking it to the same hacker group that is responsible for similar efforts aimed at political, military, diplomatic and other officials, as reported by our industrial counterparts in Microsoft and Google," he continued.

Even though it has been blocked, Meta insists it will continue to monitor other information originating from fellow industry partners, internal investigations, and user reports. The company will also take firm action if they detect further attempts by criminals.

"We strongly encourage public leaders, journalists, political candidates, and campaign teams to remain vigilant, take advantage of privacy and security arrangements, avoid interaction with messages from people they don't know, and report suspicious activities to us," Meta concluded.