Jeff Bezos’ phone hacked after WhatsApp chat with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
- Report raises questions about how National Enquirer disclosed Bezos’ extramarital affair in reports that relied, in part, on intimate text messages sent by Bezos
- Hack came months before the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for the Bezos-owned Washington Post
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have been involved in a plot to hack the phone of Amazon’s billionaire boss Jeff Bezos, United Nations experts said on Wednesday.
The UN special rapporteurs, Agnes Callamard and David Kaye, said they had information pointing to the “possible involvement” of the prince in the alleged 2018 cyberattack. Saudi officials have dismissed the allegations as absurd.
Callamard, the special rapporteur for extra-judicial killings, and Kaye, special rapporteur for free expression, said the allegation of Saudi involvement “demands immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities”.
Cybersecurity experts hired by Bezos, the world’s richest man, concluded his phone was probably infiltrated by a video file sent from a WhatsApp account purportedly belonging to Prince Mohammed in 2018, according to a person familiar with the matter.
They said the device began leaking massive amounts of data about a month afterwards, the source said.