Suspected Involvement of 'APT42' Related to Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on the 23rd (local time) that it confirmed an Iranian hacking group attempted to hack WhatsApp accounts of U.S. government officials.

Meta stated that the group tried to hack officials from the Joe Biden administration and the former Donald Trump administration but was immediately blocked. However, Meta explained that there was no evidence that these accounts were actually hacked.

While Meta did not specify the exact accounts targeted, it added that the officials targeted by the hacking attempts were located in Israel, Palestine, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The hacking group is believed by Meta to be "APT42," which is linked to the Iranian elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Meta explained that its security team analyzed suspicious messages reported by an unspecified number of users on WhatsApp accounts and concluded that "APT42" appeared to be involved.

This hacking group is known to install surveillance software on victims' mobile phones to record calls and extract text messages.

Previously, Microsoft (MS) and Google also revealed that an Iranian hacking group attempted phishing attacks targeting the election campaigns of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, candidates in the U.S. presidential election. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, also confirmed that Iran attempted to interfere in the U.S. presidential election using ChatGPT and deleted the related accounts.