UN experts demand immediate US investigate reports that billionaire Jeff Bezos has been hacked spyware. The malware was posted in the message sent by WhatsApp to a personal account of the crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman.
A special UN report
Special rapporteurs of the UN — agnès Callamar and David Kay — in a joint statement expressed «serious concern» over evidence observations Betasom, which they described as a possible «attempt to influence the publication of reports on Saudi Arabia in the Washington Post», which is owned by Bezos.
The statement comes after Tuesday, the Guardian published an article saying that the phone Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the richest man in the world in 2018 has been hacked after receiving a WhatsApp message with a personal account of a Saudi Prince.
Remember this image? Jeff Bezos & Saudi crown prince MBS laughing together in 2018. Well, apparently, it was followed by a friendly Whatsapp exchange between the 2 men. Now it turns out, reports the Guardian, MBS used that exchange to Whatsapp hack Bezos’s phone! Wow. Just wow. pic.twitter.com/CAI45ifaPI
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 21, 2020
According to the detailed schedule provided by the rapporteurs of the UN, Bezos met with Prince Mohammed to «small lunch» in Los Angeles April 4, 2018. They exchanged phone numbers, «which correspond to their user accounts in WhatsApp».
Bezos has been the victim of surveillance?
The UN has said that, according to forensic analysis, «the crown Prince in November 2018 and February 2019 was sent to the Bezos WhatsApp message, with which he allegedly disclosed personal and confidential information about Mr. Besosa are not available in open sources».
In the Appendix to their report provides additional information on the alleged incident in November 2018, when WhatsApp with account of the crown Prince on the phone Bezos had sent a photo «along with a sardonic caption». According to the UN rapporteurs of the pictured woman «like that with which Bezos had an affair». This happened several months before this fact became public knowledge.
10 January 2019, in the National Enquirer published an article which covered the divorce process Bezos. Published materials that the owner cheated on his wife Mackenzie with presenter Lauren Sanchez. Media company, American Media (AMI), owner of several magazines and tabloids including the National Enquirer newspaper, denies that any «third party» influenced the publication.
The UN announced details of the advanced technical analysis that established «grounds for belief» that Bezos was the victim of «Intrusive surveillance through hacking his phone as a result of actions associated with a user account WhatsApp, used by crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman».
It is alleged that on may 1, 2018 iPhone Bezos was infected with malware through a MP4 video file sent to the crown Prince. A few hours after receiving the video file MP4 started the «massive and unprecedented filtering» of information in the phone. The volume of outbound data has increased dramatically, but remained undetected for several months.
WhatsApp sues NSO
«Most probable explanation» of the leak data phone penetration in spyware might have developed the NSO Group, a private Israeli company. NSO immediately declared his innocence to this issue, saying: «We can definitely say that in this case, our technology was not used».
WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, accusing the NSO that they are the secret behind the attacks on more than 100 human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and academics.
In the past NSO has actively protected from lawsuits WhatApp and repeatedly stated that their software, known as Pegasus, is only used as a tool for law enforcement.
Jeff Bezos»s cellphone was hacked using a WhatsApp account belonging to Arabia’Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 2 UN experts said, in an effort to “influence, if not silence,” reporting on the kingdom by The Washington Post https://t.co/7JUhUcQJvJ
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) September 23, 2020
According to UN special rapporteurs, the Royal guard of Saudi Arabia has acquired from the NSO Group spyware Pegasus in November 2017 and, as suggested, used it in an attack on Saudi dissidents.
In a statement, the UN said: «phone Hacking Bezos occurred in the period from may to June 2018, when was also hacked the phones of two of the close companions of Jamal Khashoggi, Assiri Yahya and Omar Aziz, allegedly using malicious software Pegasus».
UN warns of participants Davos-2020
The UN has strictly warned the most famous members of the world economic forum in Davos, which recently met with the crown Prince. UN officials also said they wanted to «raise the alarm» to warn the people around the world that dealt with Saudi Arabia, about «the unreliability of electronic systems.»
Speaking with the Guardian on the agenda in Davos, Callamar, the UN special Rapporteur, stated: «I’m disappointed that the organizers did not focus on this issue in its agenda».
She added: «they are All extremely vulnerable.»
Callamar said that the future king of Saudi Arabia may have had a personal relationship to the pursuit of billionaire owner of the Washington Post, and it must again draw attention to the investigation of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a journalist of the Washington Post, was killed in October 2018, five months after the alleged «hacking» of the iPhone Bezos.
In his statement, the UN rapporteurs said:
«The circumstances and timing of phone hacking and surveillance of Betasom — a reason for further investigation from the US version that the crown Prince ordered, instigated or, at least, knew about the planning of the murder of Khashoggi in Istanbul. At a time when Saudi Arabia allegedly investigated the murder and persecuted those she believed to be guilty, she secretly conducted a massive online campaign against Bezos and Amazon focus on him as the owner of the Washington Post».
