Security News > 2020 > January > Saudi Prince Allegedly Hacked World's Richest Man Jeff Bezos Using WhatsApp
The iPhone of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the 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 today.
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 iPhone.
In one of the unlikely scenarios, it's also possible that someone else hacked into Salman's phone or his WhatsApp account and orchestrated the cyberattack against Bezos by sending that malicious video file on behalf of the crown prince.
"The hacking of Mr. Bezos' phone occurred during a period, May-June 2018, in which the phones of two close associates of Jamal Khashoggi, Yahya Assiri and Omar Abdulaziz, were also hacked, allegedly using the Pegasus malware," the Human Rights Council said.
"According to the forensic analysis, following the hacking of Mr. Bezos' phone, the Crown Prince sent WhatsApp messages to Mr. Bezos, in November 2018 and February 2019, in which he allegedly revealed private and confidential information about Mr. Bezos' personal life that was not available from public sources."