UN calls for probe into possible hacking of Bezos’ phone

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — United Nations experts Wednesday called for an “immediate investigation” by the United States and others into information they received that suggests that Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked after receiving a file sent from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s WhatsApp account.

Bezos owns The Washington Post and is the founder of Amazon.

At a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, “it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post,” the experts said in their statement.

The U.N. experts reviewed a 2019 digital forensic analysis of Bezos’ iPhone, which they said was made available to them as U.N. Special Rapporteurs.

The experts said that records showed that within hours of receipt of a video from the crown Prince’s WhatsApp account, there was “an anomalous and extreme change in phone behaviour” with enormous amounts of data from the phone being transmitted over the following months.

The Associated Press