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Bezo's Phone Hacked

Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

Investigation suggests Washington Post owner was targeted
   5 months before murder of Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Phone allegedly began leaking data shortly after being sent a video file
   from WhatsApp account linked to Prince Mohammed

Their connection and feud goes back to Bezos' leaked penis selfies
   and the Washington Post columnist murder in Istanbul

The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.

Large amounts of data were exfiltrated from Bezos’s phone within hours of the infected video file was sent from the account of the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post. The Guardian has no knowledge of what was taken from the phone or how it was used.

The extraordinary revelation that the future king of Saudi Arabia may have had a personal involvement in the targeting of the American founder of Amazon will send shockwaves from Wall Street to Silicon Valley.

A forensic audit of Mr. Bezos’ phone by FTI Consulting, a business advisory group based in Washington, found with “medium to high confidence” that the device began leaking data shortly after being sent a video file from the WhatsApp account linked to Prince Mohammed, the person said, as part of an operation that siphoned information for months.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday denied the allegations. “Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos’ phone are absurd,” the Saudi embassy in the U.S. said on Twitter. “We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.”

In a lengthy blog post nearly a year ago, Mr. Bezos accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of trying to blackmail him by threatening to release embarrassing photos after the tabloid alleged he had engaged in an extramarital affair. Mr. Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, suggested in the post that the photos of him may have been obtained through illicit means that involved connections between the National Enquirer’s publisher, American Media Inc., and the Saudi government.

A month later, a security consultant hired by Mr. Bezos alleged in the Daily Beast that investigators had determined “with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’s phone, and gained private information.”

Mr. Mark Sanchez, the brother of Bezo's girlfriend, acquired racy text messages the Amazon founder sent to Lauren Sanchez and sold them to the National Enquirer. Later he denied sending “the many penis selfies” but declined to comment on whether he provided photos of Mr. Bezos to the Enquirer.

Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the CIA has concluded the act was likely ordered by Prince Mohammed. The Saudi government has contested the findings.

“The Post’s essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles,” Mr. Bezos wrote in his blog post last year.

Articles originally published on wsj.com and theguardian.com