By Rizal Obanil
An official of Facebook denied allegations aerospace Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked using their WhatsApp application.
(Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP/FILE/ MANILA BULLETIN)
More than just a denial, Nicola Medelsohn, vice president of Facebook, also seemingly put the blame on Bezos’ phone itself, wrote Marcus Gilmer in his article for Mashable Southeast Asia.
The hacking of Bezos’ phone was supposedly made possible through a malware-laden video allegedly sent to his WhatsApp which allowed the hacker access to the Amazon CEO’s personal data.
Initially, Facebook remained mum on the issue but on Thursday, Medelsohn finally broke the silence.
Medelsohn told Bloomberg that the company was taking the matter seriously.
She also explained that they first decided to investigate the matter before issuing a denial.
The phone in question was an iPhone X and the investigation is looking into the iOS that was used.
“One of the things that it highlights is actually some of the potential underlying vulnerabilities that exist on the actual operating systems on phones. From a WhatsApp perspective, from a Facebook perspective, the thing that we care about the most, the thing that we invest in is making sure that the information that people have with us is safe and secure," Gilmer quoted Medelsohn as saying.
Bezos reportedly accepted the message because it came from Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a known contact in his phone, but as it turns out wasn’t safe, as it quite possibly had already been hacked.