Jeff Bezos Phone Hacked

United Nations experts reported on Wednesday that the phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked after it received a file sent by an account used by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Information suggests that Bezos’ phone was likely hacked after receiving an MP4 video file from the Saudi prince’s WhatsApp account in May 2018. The file was sent five months before Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Turkey.  

The United Nations experts said that the information found suggests the possible involvement of the crown prince in surveillance of Bezos in an effort to influence or silence the Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi was writing columns highlighting the crown prince’s clampdown on dissent as the prince was being widely hailed for major social reforms. 

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called the hacking allegations “absolutely illegitimate.” Saudi Arabia is also under investigation in the U.S. for another case involving Twitter where California prosecutors are alleging that the Saudi government recruited Twitter employees to gather confidential personal information on thousands of accounts.