Meta blocks Iranian WhatsApp groups over fears of interference in US presidential election

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has blocked several WhatsApp groups linked to Iranian hackers amid growing concerns over interference in the upcoming US presidential election.

These groups were reportedly connected to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and were part of a broader attempt to influence the 2024 election.

According to Meta, the hackers posed as technical support on WhatsApp to target individuals associated with the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The same group has previously attempted phishing attacks against individuals connected to Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign, as well as political and diplomatic officials, business leaders, and other public figures in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the US, and the UK.

The hackers used an approach known as social engineering, where they pretended to be technical support for AOL, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, attempting to trick targets into revealing sensitive information such as account passwords.

Meta identified the campaign after some of the targets reported suspicious messages to WhatsApp.

While Meta stated that there is no evidence that these hackers successfully compromised any targeted accounts, the company has shared information with law enforcement and other tech companies.

The US government has also highlighted Iran's attempts to hack both Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns as part of efforts to shape the outcome of the November election.

In a joint statement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) emphasised that Iran perceives this election as crucial to its national security interests, leading to increasingly aggressive actions, including influence operations targeting the American public.

The Trump campaign has blamed the leak of internal documents on Iranian hackers, an incident currently under investigation by the FBI.

The Harris campaign, meanwhile, was warned by the FBI in July about being targeted by foreign influence operations but has not reported any security breaches.