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Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

theguardian.com

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Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#71

Post by WilTimSon »

tasssko wrote: post #58

Is it that easy to be hacked with WhatsApp?

Well, here's a list of known WhatsApp hacks that were revealed in 2019:

Call hack [0]: https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-hack-phone-call-voip-bu...

Video hack [1]: https://thehackernews.com/2019/11/whatsapp-hacking-vulnerabi...

GIF hack [2]: https://thehackernews.com/2019/10/whatsapp-rce-vulnerability...

That call hack was famously used by NSO, hitting thousands of people [3]: https://thehackernews.com/2019/10/whatsapp-nso-group-malware...

Hack that let anyone crash the apps for all members of a group chat [4]: https://thehackernews.com/2019/12/whatsapp-group-crash.html

I think I'm actually missing one more. These are just the widely known ones, mind you, and just for 2019.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#72

Post by powowow »

jessaustin wrote: post #23
saberience wrote: post #2

Let's assume this is how Bezos's phone was hacked for a second, does anyone think Trump would do anything about it? Sanction Saudia Arabia? Trump didn't lift a finger after the Jamal Khashoggi killing and his son-in-law is deep in various business dealings with MBS and his goons. Hell, Trump is probably happy the Saudis are hacking the phone of his perceived "enemy".

Is this something a President or anyone in government employ should care about? A private citizen using a commercial app on a private phone granted that app some permissions he later regretted. Why should USA taxpayers care about that?

It is reasonable and normal for governments to care when other governments attack their citizens.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#73

Post by jessaustin »

victords wrote: post #59
jessaustin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something a President or anyone in government employ should care about? A private citizen using a commercial app on a private phone granted that app some permissions he later regretted. Why should USA taxpayers care about that?

By that logic, nobody should care about the Khashoggi killing as well.

I don't agree that hacking an app and murder are the same. The state obviously has an interest in preventing murder.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#74

Post by jessriedel »

kshacker wrote: post #56

Whatsapp allows desktop clients. I use it too. It is technically possible for someone to hijack this desktop client and do this without MBS's involvement, as long as MBS authorized that desktop. I think you need proximity, but you can have a computer near the prince, and that computer being remotely controlled by someone sitting far away. Not saying this happened ... but there are many ways to blame it on prince and…

I thought the Whatsapp desktop client was just a glorified remote control for the phone, and could not actually function as a standalone client by itself?

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#75

Post by joe_the_user »

mirimir wrote: post #66

OK, so I'm just a random anonymous coward. And arguably obsessed with my hobby. But I'm puzzled that Bezos would be corresponding with MBS on the same device that he uses for potentially embarrassing personal stuff. Isn't that just a totally obvious OPSEC fail? Edit: But that's what he did, isn't it? And how could that be considered safe?

I think this a good question.

The problem is that even the head of a ginormous company with a strong connection to computer security generally (through AWS) is going to take actions based on convenience rather than OPSEC discipline.

I think it's natural for any given human to chat with all one's friend on the same level, with the same device and so-forth. A given individual can train themselves to have hard walls in their personal dealings but I'd suspect that individual would be a mid-level specialist, not the owner/manager/CEO who gets their position by their ability to manage and connect with people, not through technical expertise.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#76

Post by jessaustin »

powowow wrote: post #72
jessaustin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something a President or anyone in government employ should care about? A private citizen using a commercial app on a private phone granted that app some permissions he later regretted. Why should USA taxpayers care about that?

It is reasonable and normal for governments to care when other governments attack their citizens.

If I got hacked, no one in government would care. Why should Bezos be different?

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#77

Post by khc »

danso wrote: post #12
henryw wrote: post #4

I'm glad it's fixed now. https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2019-11931

At the time, FB said it didn't believe the bug had been exploited: In this instance there is no reason to believe users were impacted. [0] The alleged hack of Bezos happened in May 2018, about 18 months after the Nov 2019 bug fix. I wonder if FB's statement was just boilerplate PR or if they really did substantial forensics to have "no reason to believe users were impacted". [0] https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/…

do you mean 18 months before?

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#78

Post by rconti »

bb88 wrote: post #27
Apocryphon wrote: post #7

So MBS or someone in Saudi intelligence is somehow behind the leak of the photos to the National Enquirer, and the subsequent divorce of the Bezos?

Where's the Feds on this? I don't find it comforting that attacks happening on the US's free press go unanswered by law enforcement. We should be indicting MBS.

Not only has the US president declared the press the "enemy of the people", he also has a personal vendetta against Jeff Bezos for hurting his feelings. And he's got a personal lackey doing his personal bidding at the head of the DOJ.

If anything, it's more plausible to have been directed by the President (though it probably wasn't) than for any consequences of these actions to come from this administration (which certainly won't happen).

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#79

Post by commoner »

jessaustin wrote: post #76
powowow wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is reasonable and normal for governments to care when other governments attack their citizens.

If I got hacked, no one in government would care. Why should Bezos be different?

Bezos is the CEO/president of a company that employs 750,000 people in the United States. You are presumably not.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#80

Post by ljm »

bb88 wrote: post #27
Apocryphon wrote: post #7

So MBS or someone in Saudi intelligence is somehow behind the leak of the photos to the National Enquirer, and the subsequent divorce of the Bezos?

Where's the Feds on this? I don't find it comforting that attacks happening on the US's free press go unanswered by law enforcement. We should be indicting MBS.

Is that news? It’s well known that MBS is plugging money into tech in order to move away from fossil fuels.

You’re not going to get any investment from Saudi Arabia that doesn’t go through him.

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