Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman, is accused of personally hacking the phone of Jeff Bezos- the world’s richest man, Amazon CEO and owner of Washington Post.
A new wave of menacing allegations has stoked another predicament for the embattled Saudi Kingdom and its royal leadership. The investigations have reportedly rocked Wall Street to Silicon Valley, claims the international media.
Jeff Bezos's personal phone was hacked by malware that was sent to him directly by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, analysis suggests https://t.co/Gi7ovo3wMc
— Bloomberg (@business) January 22, 2020
The latest investigations reveal that Bezos received a malware video from Saudi Crown Prince MBS’s personal account during their friendly WhatsApp conversation on May 1st, 2018.
The malicious file intruded into Jeff Bezos’s phone stipulates the digital forensic analysis.
The investigators assert colossal data was extracted from the phone of Bezos but there is no information about what was taken and how it was used.
Read more: US and Saudi Arabia: allies in a war against Iran and Iraq
The revelation came amid the forensic analysis of Bezos’s phone following the publication last year in January revealing intimate details of his private life. The story also included details about his extramarital affair. The digital forensic experts set off an investigation to find how Bezos’s private texts were obtained by the tabloid.
While the American Media Inc (AMI), that owns the tabloid, insisted they received information about Jeff Bezos’s affairs from his girlfriend’s estranged brother, the Bezos’s security team claimed with ‘high confidence’ that they found traces of Saudi involvement in hacking the CEO’s phone.
A new wave of explosive allegations against Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman will cramp the progress of the ambitious economic diversification plans under the Crown Prince’s Vision 2030
Gavin De Becker, head of the security team, even wrote in an article published in Daily Beast that they have provided details of the investigations to the law enforcement agencies.
Both Saudi Arabia and AMI have repudiated the allegations of phone hacking against them. Later, the Saudi Embassy in USA published a tweet calling the allegations ‘absurd’.
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.
— Saudi Embassy USA (@SaudiEmbassyUSA) January 22, 2020
Saudi critics and analysts believe Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman had a fair reason for an offensive against Jeff Bezos due to the critical coverage of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s inflammatory articles against the future king of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, analysts say Amazon’s CEO had no reason to be cautious of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman particularly after they developed a friendly and close relationship during Crown Prince’s public relations tour to USA to reinvigorate the image of the kingdom and lure western investors into the desert country.
Read more: Investigator says Amazon chief’s phone hacked by Saudis
Bezos and Muhammad bin Salman even attended a dinner together in Hollywood hosted by Brian Gazer and Ari Emanuel. Amazon was in negotiation with Saudi authorities to open data centers in the Kingdom.
However, experts believe that a new wave of explosive allegations against Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman will cramp the progress of the ambitious economic diversification plans under the Crown Prince’s Vision 2030.
The implication of Muhammad bin Salman and Saudi authorities in the murder of Khashoggi has already stymied the progress and tainted the image of Saudi among westerners.