Jeff Bezos' security chief says his investigation concluded with high confidence that Saudi Arabia “had access to Bezos' phone, and gained private information”
These are not April Fool items. Bobby Hellard / IT PRO : Jeff Bezos allegedly hacked by Saudi Arabia Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE : Security consultant claims Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked by Saudi Arabia Reuters : Saudis gained access to Amazon CEO Bezos' phone: Bezos' security chief Eva Short / Silicon Republic : Saudi Arabia hacked Jeff Bezos's phone for nudes, investigator claims Daniel Politi / Slate : Jeff Bezos' Investigator Says Saudi Arabia Accessed Amazon Chief's Phone Jake Kanter / Business Insider : Jeff Bezos breezily replied to a threat of ‘extortion’ over his sexts with a 3-word email BBC : Saudi Arabia 'hacked Amazon boss's phone', says investigator Andrew Liptak / The Verge : Jeff Bezos' investigators believe ‘with high confidence’ that Saudi Arabia accessed his phone Kevin J. Delaney / Quartz : Jeff Bezos' security chief says the Saudi government spied on Bezos' personal phone Hasan Chowdhury / Telegraph : Saudis hacked Jeff Bezos's phone, says security chief of Amazon boss Newser : Bezos' Security Honcho Finished His Probe. Here's What He Found Nathan Bomey / USA Today : Did Saudi Arabia hack Jeff Bezos? Amazon CEO adviser says Saudis ‘got private information’ Davey Winder / Forbes : Investigator Says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Phone Hacked By Saudis, Suggests Link to Khashoggi Killing CNET : Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone hacked by Saudis, investigator says Alexis Nedd / Mashable : Plot twist: Jeff Bezos' affair leak may have been Saudi government attack Taylor Soper / GeekWire : Jeff Bezos' security consultant says Saudi government hacked Amazon CEO's phone Shannon Bond / Financial Times : Saudis hacked Amazon chief's phone, says security consultant Spencer Kimball / NBC News : Saudis accessed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone and gained private data, security chief says EditorDavid / Slashdot : Saudis Gained Access to Amazon CEO's Phone, Says Bezos' Security Chief Karen Weise / New York Times : Bezos' Security Consultant Accuses Saudis of Hacking the Amazon C.E.O.'s Phone Jeff Bezos / The Guardian : Saudis hacked Amazon chief Jeff Bezos's phone, says company's security adviser DataBreaches.net : Bezos Investigation Finds the Saudis Obtained His Private Data Tweets: Sriram Krishnan / @sriramk : On Bezos's phone: the current speculation is that for such an attack to work, they probably involve a 0-day exploit+malware assuming iOS (by NSO or someone similar).Curious to hear from the security folks here - what are other ways this could have happened? Quatrain Gleam / @quatraingleam : This is fucking Feudal bullshit. Billionaires and princes waging internecine personal warfare. This is the Earl of Northumberland sending the Prince of Portugal to ruin the Duke of Lancaster bullshit right here. Plus National Enquirer. http://twitter.com/... Emin Gn Sirer / @el33th4xor : If Bezos cannot keep his phone safe, none of us can. Do not grant apps permission to view your pics, they can steal them.Do not install utility apps. Ask Google and Apple to support permissions where apps cannot steal data belonging to other apps.http://www.cnbc.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : There isn't enough in the story to go on, and several of the quotes are clearly from non-experts and can't be parsed.For normal people, I would say 0-day is a paranoid fantasy and assume credential reuse or phishing. For MBS vs World's Richest Man, anything is on the table. http://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Even professional mobile malware leaves traces, I would wait for real evidence before making any claims.That being said, the idea of Bezos going after NSO Group in court gives me a reason to get up in the morning. Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Amazon's security team is highly competent, and I expect Bezos is paranoid enough to not fall for the normal traps. Wouldn't be crazy for a CEO to have a secret personal phone that isn't managed/secured. Matthew Miller / @matthewamiller : So what happens if and when the FBI confirms this and DOJ wants to indict a bunch of Saudi officials? Lot of difficult conversations inside the administration. https://twitter.com/... Brian Stelter / @brianstelter : The Bezos camp is doubling - no, tripling - down on the Saudi angle: http://twitter.com/... Josh Lederman / @joshnbcnews : Jeff Bezos' private investigator says they've determined with high confidence that Saudi Arabia got access to Bezos' phone. He cites my @AP story with @JeffHorwitz that used forensic evidence to show Saudi got advance copy of AMI's pro-MBS magazine https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... Kelly Blodgett / @kelly_blodgett : Holy Sh*t. “And now they've evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country's leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced."- Gavin DeBecker https://twitter.com/... John Battelle / @johnbattelle : Golly! Why on earth would the Saudis want to hack Bezos? I mean, it's not like they're colluding with a dude who hates Bezos and happens to be POTUS, right? http://twitter.com/... Noah Shachtman / @noahshachtman : Earlier today, Michael Sanchez — brother of Bezos' GF — told Page Six that the Enquirer *approached him* about Bezos' racy texts, not the other way around. If true, that means the Enquirer found out about the affair from another source or method. https://twitter.com/... Will Bunch / @will_bunch : I got some grief from people for this column after AMI so aggressively leaked “the brother did it” angle on the Jeff Bezos hacking. But now my piece about the Saudis going after the owner of the Washington Post looks better than ever https://www.philly.com/... Kevin Poulsen / @kpoulsen : Jeff Bezos told his longtime security specialist to “spend whatever is needed” to find out who was involved in the National Enquirer's alleged sextortion attempt on his boss. The investigation is now complete, says Gavin De Becker, and Saudi Arabia's fingerprints are everywhere. https://twitter.com/... Julie Bykowicz / @bykowicz : This account would explain why Bezos raised Saudi Arabia in his Medium post, a key question that hadn't been answered. https://twitter.com/... Max Tani / @maxwelltani : Bezos' investigator notes that the Saudi government has been intent on harming Jeff Bezos since the Washington Post began its relentless coverage of Jamal Khashoggi's murder. http://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer