Reports indicate that Jeff Bezos might have been compromised by the government of Saudi Arabia through his cellphone.
The news comes from Amazon’s security chief, who claims that an investigation into the situation has revealed that leaked text messages were obtained through means of compromising the CEO’s device.
The leaked messages were used in an attempt to blackmail Bezos into making certain public statements regarding the National Enquirer.
More interestingly, Gavin De Becker, the security consultant, who revealed the security breach, has claimed that he was contacted by people representing the parent company above the National Enquirer, who had demanded that he not make any public statements regarding possible data breaches or spying.
De Becker explained: “Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information. As of today, it is unclear to what degree, if any, AMI was aware of the details.”
Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, previously reacted to the accusations by saying: “This is something between the two parties, we have nothing to do with it. It sounds to me like a soap opera. Maybe some of our citizens read The National Enquirer when they’re in the United States… but that’s it.”
It is not known how the personal device of someone in the position of Mr. Bezos could have been compromised.
The announcement was met with worried responses by certain groups and has introduced yet another reason for people to doubt the security of the phones in their pockets.
Many people have recently started to move away from smartphones as a whole, claiming that the intrusions into their privacy have become too much to bear.
Whether this could have any further impact on the business of Amazon itself is hard to tell.
Bezos has not offered any additional comments on the situation with his device’s security.
However, this is expected given the sensitive nature of the incident and the fact that a confirmation of the hack could lead to even more potential leaks in the near future.
The Saudi Arabia angle is reportedly linked to the Bezos’ owned-news outlet, Washington Post‘s coverage of the Jamal Khashoggi killing that rocked the country.
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