Saudi Rejects Reports Crown Prince Is Behind Hacking Amazon Chief Bezos' Phone

(@fidahassanain)

Saudi rejects reports Crown Prince is behind hacking Amazon Chief Bezos' phone

Washington Post reports that a massive amount of data was extracted from Bezos´s phone after he got a message from an account purportedly belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

WASHINGTON: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Jan 22nd, 2020) The Saudi embassy in Washington rejected the suggestions that the Kingdom hacked Jeff Bezos’ phone, asking for investigation on these claims so they could have all the facts out.

Taking to Twitter, Saudi Arabia embassy said: “Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos’ phone aare absurd,”.

“We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out,” the embassy officials further wrote on Twitter.

The media reports claimed that it was WhatsApp message from an account of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that was related to hacking phone of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. The intimate images of Amazon found Bezos were found after the 2018 intrusion into device. Jeff Bezoz—the owner of Washington Post—employed Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018.

According to The Washington Post, a United Nations investigation would report on Wednesday that Bezos´s cell phone was hacked after he got the WhatsApp message from an account purportedly belonging to Prince Mohammed.

It claimed that a massive amount of data was extracted from Bezos´s phone after the message was sent. The paper reported while relying on the report of investigators. The Guardian—the UK’s paper, claimed that two men had seemingly friendly Whatsapp exchange when unsolicited file was extracted,”.

The Guardian relied upon a digital forensic analysis that an encrypted message from the number used by Prince Mohammed was believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated Bezos's phone.

After this incident, Bezos hired Gavin de Becker & Associates to find out how his intimate text messages and photos made their way into the hands of the National Enquirer, which reported on the Amazon chief´s extramarital affair, leading to his divorce.

De Becker said he concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities hacked the Amazon chief's phone to access his personal data last year.

“The Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone and got private information ,” said de Becker, adding that their investigators and several other experts establish this fact through their investigation. However, de Becker did not mention exactly which part of the Saudi government was involved in hack but he held the Kingdom responsible.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.