A WhatsApp video call would allow malicious code to attack the device
The Saudi prince and Bezos met in Los Angeles in 2018.
Photo:
ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / MICHAEL REYNOLDS / EFE
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A forensic report on the hacking in 2018 of the telephone Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and of The Washington Post, reveals that Saudi Arabia would probably use the malware most feared by activists and journalists They perform their functions in hot areas like Saudi Arabia or Mexico.
Two UN Special Rapporteurs, Agnes Callamard (in extrajudicial executions) and David Kaye (in freedom of opinion and expression) cited the report on the cyber attack of the malware known as Pegasus and who may have entered the mobile device of one of the richest men in the world. This spy, which allows you to follow all the movements of the smartphone you are attacking, it had already affected some 1,400 diplomats, prosecutors, journalists and activists.
“The forensic analysis concludes that the intrusion was probably carried out through a well-known product of spyware identified in other Saudi surveillance cases, such as malware Pegasus-3 of NSO Group, a product that has been bought and used by the Saudi authorities“, The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement about the hacking of Bezos.
The press release of the international organization notes that “these would be consistent with other information” and mention a Facebook / Whatsapp lawsuit against NSO Group for using “WhatsApp as a platform to allow the installation of Pegasus on the devices.”
The hacking of Bezos took place at the same time that the phones of two people close to Jamal Khashoggi were also cyber-attacked. Khashoggi wrote in the Post articles critical of the Saudi Arabian government and was killed in 2018 by Saudi agents at the country’s embassy in Istanbul. The UN notes that these cyber attacks were also made using Pegasus.
During two weeks of May 2018 Pegasus attacked the phones of 1,400 personalities taking advantage of a security hole. He did it through a sort of WhatsApp video call that you didn’t even have to answer for the malware affect the device. Once the hacking took effect, the attackers could access in real time the microphone, conversations, location and files of the smartphone in question.
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