Lets be real here, WhatsApp’s safety standards has always been the messaging apps achilles heel, and no one seems to really care for some strange reason. Just a couple of months ago, Telegram founder Pavel Durov fired shots at WhatsApp, urging users to delete the app ASAP or risk having their messages and photos being leaked.
Fast forward to today and news has broke that Jeff Bezos phone was allegedly hacked by a malicious message sent to him via WhatsApp… By a Saudi Arabian crown prince. Yup. And the story is only going to get even more crazy.
According to a report by The Guardian, the hack, which took place back in May 2018, targeted unknown contents on Bezos’ personal cellphone. The report states that Mr Jeff and the crown prince were having a friendly conversation over WhatsApp when the crown prince sent a mysterious video file. What do we do when we receive a mysterious video file on WhatsApp? We open it, of course! It is at this exact moment that Jeff Bezos phone was compromised and large amounts of data was transferred off the device.
The video apparently took advantage of a vulnerability within WhatsApp to inject Pegasus spyware into Bezos phone, as reported by The Washington Post. It is worth noting though, that The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, so.. make of that what you will.
Now you must be wondering, why on earth would a Saudi prince want to hack Jeff Bezos phone? Well, just last year, heir apparent to the Saudi throne Prince Mohammed was accused of the murder of notable Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Why is this relevant? You see, The Washington Post covered the Khashoggi murder quite extensively and hacking Jeff Bezos could’ve been one way that they could gain some leverage on him over his publications often critical coverage of the Kingdom.
Of course, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations
“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 Arabia’s US embassy via Twitter
Its pretty insane what’s going on here. The interesting part is, all of this was uncovered after Jeff Bezos hired a personal investigator to figure out how the hell the contents of his phone (his extramarital affair) were leaked. I doubt he’d have expected it to unravel the way it has.
Regardless, this is just one high profile example of the lax security that Facebook owned WhatsApp offers its 5 billion users. Will this be enough to get you to stop using the app?
Of course not. “Who the f*** are we to have to worry about someone hacking us” right? ”
“We’re nobodies! Hack away, hacker man!”
But we should worry. With all our banking apps, details and passwords all stored on our phones, there is a lot to be lost here so maybe it’s time we rethink how careless we are about our personal data, eh?
