Zimbabwe's ICT Minister Tatenda Mavetera said (Oct 13) the government is investigating a wave of account takeovers hitting WhatsApp Business and other Meta platforms, calling the scale "unprecedented". POTRAZ and the police Cyber Crime Division are leading, with the unnamed mobile operator and Meta engaged. One line of inquiry is SMS termination partners (aggregators), i.e. whether verification codes were intercepted upstream, but the minister stressed that is unproven. Investigators are also checking whether hijacked accounts were used to abuse linked Meta ad accounts and payment methods. The operator is due to publish findings. Defender takeaways: SMS one-time codes are only as strong as the delivery chain; turn on WhatsApp two-step PIN and passkeys, review linked devices and ad/payment activity, and verify any money request out of band. Reports that the attacks bypass 2-step verification are not confirmed.