[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #683: Anyone, anywhere can be hacked

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OPLIN 4Cast #683: Anyone, anywhere can be hacked
January 29th, 2020

[image: stunned man, surprised offended, shocked by what he sees on his
smartphone] A year ago, the *National Enquirer* published an exposé of an
affair between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. At the time, Bezos suggested
that the Saudi government had played a role in leaking his text messages to
the tabloid, and he had retained a security expert to investigate. This
week, the forensic report was made public, and Saudi prince Mohammed bin
Salman was implicated. The suggestion seems to be that MBS sent Bezos an
infected video file over WhatsApp, which compromised the phone. But many
observers are unsatisfied with the report and skeptical of its findings.

Regardless of whether the WhatsApp messages are to blame, "the biggest
takeaway from this," writes Sheera Frenkel of the *New York Times*, "is
that anyone, anywhere, can be hacked if the person carrying out the attack
has enough time, money and patience."

   -
   - UN calls for investigation after Saudis linked to Bezos phone hack
   <https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/22/bezos-nso-group-hack/> [*TechCrunch*]
   "Remarks made by U.N. human rights experts on Wednesday said mobile spyware
   was likely used to exfiltrate gigabytes of data from Bezos’ phone in May
   2018, about six months after the Saudi government first obtained the
   spyware."
   - Here Is the Technical Report Suggesting Saudi Arabia’s Prince Hacked
   Jeff Bezos’ Phone
   <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74v34/saudi-arabia-hacked-jeff-bezos-phone-technical-report>
   [*Motherboard*] "Investigators spent two days poring over the device but
   were unable to find any malware on it. Instead, they only found a
   suspicious video file sent to Bezos on May 1, 2018 that 'appears to be an
   Arabic language promotional film about telecommunications.'"
   - How Jeff Bezos’ iPhone X Was Hacked
   <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/technology/jeff-bezos-hack-iphone.html?>
   [*New York Times*] "The Saudi Embassy in Washington has said that
   accusations that the kingdom was involved in hacking Mr. Bezos’ phone were
   'absurd.'"
   - The big questions from FTI's report on the Jeff Bezos hack
   <https://www.cyberscoop.com/jeff-bezos-mbs-hack-fti-report-questions/> [
   *CyberScoop*] "The company’s cybersecurity team is led by people who
   have been responsible for the protection of U.S. government entities at the
   highest levels, including the FBI and the White House. Its credentials
   aren’t in question. The report, though, left several things unanswered."

*From the Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Fleishman, Glenn. “How to Improve Your Security with WhatsApp
   <https://proxy.oplin.org:2111/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=121521113&site=ehost-live>
   .” *Macworld - Digital Edition*, Mar. 2017, p. 103.
   - Day, Matt, et al. “Amazon CEO Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of
   Blackmail
   <https://proxy.oplin.org:2111/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=140626604&site=ehost-live>
   .” *Bloomberg.Com*, Feb. 2019.
   - Cole, Juan. “Did the Same Saudi Hackers Who Trapped Khashoggi Target
   Amazon’s Bezos for Nude Photos?
   <https://proxy.oplin.org:2111/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=136002838&site=ehost-live>
   ” *Progressive Populist*, vol. 25, no. 8, May 2019, p. 17

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