world’s richest man, was reportedly hacked in May 2018 after
receiving a WhatsApp message from the personal account of Saudi
crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Guardian newspaper
revealed[1]
today.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with digital forensic analysis
of the breach, the newspaper claimed that a massive amount of data
was exfiltrated from Bezos’s phone within hours after he received a
malicious video file from the Saudi prince.
The mysterious file was sent when crown prince Salman and Bezos
were having a friendly WhatsApp conversation, and it’s ‘highly
probable’ that it exploited an undisclosed zero-day vulnerability
of WhatsApp messenger to install malware on Bezos’s
smartphone.
The Guardian said it didn’t know what data was extracted from the
phone, but the hack happened almost 9 months before an American
tabloid newspaper published intimate photos and messages sent by
Bezos, disclosing his extramarital affair that leads to a divorce
from his wife of 25 years.
Though the tabloid newspaper claimed it was tipped off about the
affair by the estranged brother of Bezos’s secret girlfriend, the
new evidence suggests, with moderately high confidence, that the
leak is linked to the hack of Bezos’s phone.
out[2] the business
relationship between the tabloid newspaper and Saudi Arabia and
also hinted that how furious the Saudis were with him for the
Washington Post’s coverage of the murder of its journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, a strong critic of the Kingdom’s rulers.
Since Bezos also owns the Washington Post and the CIA claimed
that Salman ordered Khashoggi’s assassination, the relationship
between the Amazon chief executive and the Saudi government soured
immediately after that.
To be noted, Jamal Khashoggi was killed in October 2018, almost
five months after the alleged hack of the Bezos’s phone.
Apparently, the new revelation now perfectly aligns the timeline of
events as follows:
- April 2018: Salman and Bezos exchanged numbers,
- October 2018: Jamal Khashoggi was murdered,
- November 2018: Washington Post linked Jamal Khashoggi murder to
Saudi regime, - May 2019: Salman hacked into the Bezos’ phone,
- January 2019: American tabloid exposed Bezos’ affair based on
leaked data.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s U.S. Embassy, in a tweet, dismissed the
Guardian report by calling it “absurd” and asked for an
investigation.
“Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind the
hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos’ phone are absurd. We call for an
investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts
out,” The Saudi embassy said.
However, at the time of writing, it’s unclear whether the
alleged hack of Bezos’s phone also leaked any sensitive corporate
information related to Amazon.
References
- ^
revealed
(www.theguardian.com) - ^
pointed out
(medium.com)