Security News > 2020 > January > Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia accused of hacking Jeff Bezos' phone with malware-laden WhatsApp message

Candid pictures used to threaten Amazon boss Jeff Bezos were exposed not by his current paramour's brother, as some believe, but through a sophisticated hacking operation personally directed by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, The Guardian suggests.

The paper today claims to have been told by anonymous sources that Bezos' phone was hacked using a WhatsApp message from the personal account of bin Salman himself.

If the Guardian report is true and Bezos phone was hacked through a direct message sent from bin Salman, it may have several serious repercussions.

The timing of The Guardian article, nine months after De Becker initially fingered Saudi Arabia, could be related to the fact that there is a UN investigation into the hacking which the paper itself notes "Is considered credible enough for investigators to be considering a formal approach to Saudi Arabia to ask for an explanation."

"A United Nations investigation to be released Wednesday will report that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's cellphone was hacked in 2018 after he got a WhatsApp message that came from an account purportedly belonging to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman," according to the Washington Post's source.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/22/bezos_saudi_bug/