Cyber experts question Bezos hack report claims

Cyber experts question Bezos hack report claims

Cyber security experts cast doubt on a report accusing SaudiArabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of hacking into the cellphone of Amazonfounder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, saying it had not foundany hard evidence.

The allegation, swiftly denied by the Saudi government, wasmade in a report by Washington-based consultancy FTI Consulting which concludedwith "medium to high confidence" that Bezos's iPhone X was compromised viamalware they allege originated from a video sent by the Crown Prince to Bezoson May 1, 2018.

The FTI Consulting report, originally published in November,was picked up on Wednesday by UN special rapporteurs, Agnes Callamard and DavidKaye, who said in a statement that they were "gravely concerned" by itsfindings.

Cyber security experts questioned FTI Consulting'sconclusions, saying the report was not based on a thorough forensicexamination.

"The details really matter here and the public reportingfalls short of any real firm smoking gun," iPhone security expert and CEO ofGuardian Firewall Will Strafach was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

The FTI Consulting report was commissioned by Bezos andoriginally published in November last year.

Experts noted that the report published by the UNrapporteurs said that no known malware was detected on Bezos's phone when itwas tested. Furthermore, they pointed to the statement in the report that said:"Initial results did not identify the presence of any embedded malicious code"after analysis of what they called the "suspect video file".

While Strafach noted that it was possible that if Bezos washacked and that the hackers could have deleted all the evidence, the report didnot show that any malware was actually on the phone.

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