Sources: analysis shows a message from Saudi Crown Prince MbS' WhatsApp account to Jeff Bezos in 2018 included file “highly” likely to have hacked Bezos' phone
This closes a loop that opened last spring, when [[a:940143|Bezos' security chief concluded with high confidence that Saudi Arabia had accessed Bezos' phone and gained private information]]. The new forensic analysis supplies the delivery mechanism the earlier investigation lacked: a 2018 WhatsApp message from the Crown Prince's account carrying a file deemed "highly" likely to be the infection vector.
The finding lands on top of parallel reporting the same week: [[a:949836|UN experts say the Saudis likely used NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, obtained months before the hack]], and UN special rapporteurs are now "gravely concerned" and calling for further investigations. The story has moved from private investigation to named spyware to formal UN involvement in under a year.
First-order effects
Saudi Arabia faces direct diplomatic exposure: UN special rapporteurs are formally calling for investigations, turning an alleged hack of the world's richest man into an intergovernmental matter.
NSO Group's Pegasus is now tied by expert analysis to a specific infection of a specific phone, putting the spyware vendor's government-client vetting claims under immediate scrutiny.
Second-order effects
WhatsApp and its parent face renewed pressure to harden the messaging channel used as the attack vector, since the exploit arrived through a consumer app's file transfer rather than a network-level breach.
Other Pegasus customers — governments that bought the tool on assurances it targets criminals — face harder questions as the tool's use against a private business figure becomes the public reference case.
Third-order effects
If the UN rapporteurs' investigation path holds, commercial spyware sold to states is positioned to become a regulated export category rather than a gray-market intelligence tool.
Encrypted messaging platforms may be pushed toward treating state-grade file-based exploits as a first-class security threat class, shifting the burden of defense from individual users to the platforms carrying the messages.
The trend: State-deployed commercial spyware is moving from deniable operation to named-vendor, named-victim accountability, with UN rapporteurs and messaging platforms as the forcing mechanisms.
Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos' phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.
Per this report: Bezos was in a WhatsApp chat with Saudi's MBS when unprompted the crown prince sent him a random file. The file it appears contained malware, which allowed Bezos' phone to be hacked ... leading to leaks of photos designed to embarass him https://www.theguardian.c…
A United Nations expert said Jeff Bezos' experience should sound alarms because even with his wealth and resources, it took months of investigation by specialists to figure out what had happened. “It basically means that we are all extremely vulnerable.” https://www.nytimes.com/.…
Saudi magical realism is Mohamed bin Salman looking at Jeff Bezos' hacked emails, discovered Bezos had been privately warned via email about Saudi hacking, and sending Bezos a message telling him to ignore that warning he got https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jeff Bezos' obvious move is to sue the firms that provided this tech to the Saudis into the ground. In every jurisdiction. Show there are serious financial consequences to hacking private citizens. Burn these companies to the ground with your infinite wealth. https://twitter.com/…
Among the most important details: NSO Group sells its Pegasus tools based on the number of people the customer wants to target. It's not a free-for-all SaaS product. @haaretzcom previously reported that Saudi Arabia paid $55 million to use Pegasus in 2017.
Pulling back a bit: the Saudis likely used Israeli tech (as WaPo reported) to hack Bezos, the enemy in common of MBS and Trump. https://twitter.com/...
NEW: U.N. calls for immediate investigation by the U.S. into purported hack of Jeff Bezos by the Saudi crown prince, says the operation appears to have been “an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia.” https://www.ohchr.org/...
NEW: UN investigators echo the allegation that MBS was directly involved in hacking Bezos' phone. They say it was part of an effort to intimidate Washington Post into halting its critical coverage of Khashoggi's killing. https://www.ohchr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
First, Guardian. Then FT with more detail. Then Washington Post. Now NYT with additional new details. The guy is alleged to have ordered the brutal killing of a journalist -and- hacked the mobile device of one of the leading global CEOs? Where is the US govt on this? https://twit…