Facebook has tipped off the State Department to an usual effort by Iran to hack government employees over the past month, according to a report.
“It was very carefully designed and showed the degree to which they understood which of our staff was working on Iran issues now that the nuclear deal is done,” the New York Times quoted one senior U.S. official as saying. “It was subtle.”
On Oct. 16, Facebook implemented a new feature to inform users when they are being targeted by a foreign government. “We believe your Facebook account and your other online accounts may be the target of attacks by state-sponsored actors,” a message will inform targeted users when they log in.
Officials have long feared that China will eventually begin targeting social media accounts used by American intelligence employees, although it has not yet happened. So for some, it may come as a surprise that Iran is the first country to be exposed by the feature.
Law enforcement officials who have been conducting the investigation say that the country was successful in accessing some of the targeted social media and email accounts through phishing attacks, through which a perpetrator tricks a victim into clicking on a link by posing as a legitimate acquaintance.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574545
In early November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps breached accounts held by staffers in the State Department’s Office of Iranian Affairs and Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Those attacks came after the country arrested Siamak Namazi, an American dual-citizen who was visiting Iran, and harvested contact information for American officials from his personal devices.
After the country’s arrest of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian on charges of espionage in July 2014, his brother, Ali Rezaian, said his associates experienced similar attacks. “The Iranian security services attacked Jason’s and his wife’s computers both before and after they were taken,” he said. “Iranian authorities used Jason’s social media in an attempt to engage and entrap his friends.”
The latest report suggests that Iran is becoming increasingly sophisticated by researching targets on social media without any assistance from stolen data, and accentuates the possibility that the country is working to increase proficiency in cyber as a means of conducting intelligence operations against the United States.
