US media questions Bezos hacking claims

An investigation into claims that the phone of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was hacked was unable to determine for certain that the device was compromised. Cybersecurity experts on Thursday said that while it was “likely” that a hack occurred, the findings of the privately commissioned probe by FTI Consulting did not offer a conclusive verdict. They said there are too many “unanswered questions,” including how any hack might have been carried out or what spyware was used, the Associated Press reported.

The investigators made “reasonable assumptions and speculations” but do not claim 100 percent certainty or proof, according to Steve Morgan, the founder and editor-in-chief of Cybersecurity Ventures in New York.

UK-based cybersecurity consultant Robert Pritchard said: “In some ways, the investigation is very incomplete … The conclusions they’ve drawn, I don’t think are supported by the evidence. They veered off into conjecture.”

The FTI findings contain “circumstantial evidence but no smoking gun,” according to Alex Stamos, former chief security officer at Facebook. Media reports suggested Saudi Arabia might have been involved in the hacking, after it emerged that Bezos had received a WhatsApp message from the personal account of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Saudi Embassy in the US described the allegation as “absurd,” and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan dismissed the idea as “absolutely silly.”

Forensic experts quoted by The Wall Street Journal said claims by the FTI investigation that Saudi Arabia might be responsible for hacking the phone “appeared to forgo investigatory steps.” CNN said that some experts had highlighted a “lack of sophistication” in the investigation. Investigators also looked for a connection between the alleged hack and a National Enquirer story about an extramarital affair between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez but, The New York Times reported, any such link remains “elusive.”