Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone "hacked" in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that was apparently sent from the personal account of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, according to a report by The Guardian.
Digital forensic analysis suggests that the encrypted message from the account used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file which infiltrated Bezos’s phone.
DH could not independently verify the report.
The report suggests that within a few hours, large amounts of data were taken from the phone of the world’s richest person. However, it is unclear what kind of data was stolen and how it was used.
The forensic report said that it was "highly probable" that the intrusion into the phone was triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi Crown Prince to Bezos. As per the report, the message was sent on May 1 of that year, when they both had been having a seemingly friendly WhatsApp exchange.
The news comes at a time when Mohammad bin Salman has been trying to lure investors from across the world to invest in the oil-rich kingdom in a bid to transform and diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy. He is set to be the next king of the Saudi throne.
"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's U.S. embassy said in a message posted on Twitter.