Jeff Bezos Phone Hack: UN Calls For Investigation Into Alleged Saudi Hack Of Amazon CEO

Following reports that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked by Saudi spyware in 2018, U.N. experts are calling for a swift investigation into the matter. The spyware program that cracked Bezos’ phone was allegedly sent in a WhatsApp message from Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and David Kaye called for the investigation and said that they were “gravely concerned” by the information that they had reviewed. Also, in the statement, the two claimed that the hack was an attempt to manipulate or push back against reporting being done about Saudi Arabia by the Washington Post, which Bezos owns.

“The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the crown prince in surveillance of Mr Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia,” Callamard and Kaye said in their statement. “The allegations reinforce other reporting pointing to a pattern of targeted surveillance of perceived opponents and those of broader strategic importance to the Saudi authorities, including nationals and non-nationals.”

The WhatsApp message was sent on May 1, 2018, from an account used personally by Salman, according to a recent report from the Guardian. It included an MP4 video file hiding a malicious spyware program. Forensic analysis of the phone confirmed this hack with “medium to high confidence,” according to Callamard and Kaye. After this message was sent, an enormous amount of data was reportedly taken from Bezos's mobile phone.

Alleged attempts to influence the Washington Post are especially relevant in the wake of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Post reporter who was killed in 2018 after voicing criticisms of the Saudi regime. It is believed the crown prince himself ordered the death of Khashoggi.

“Media reports that suggest the kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr Jeff Bezos’s phone are absurd,” the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.”