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Saudis Gained Access to Amazon CEO's Phone, Says Bezos' Security Chief (thedailybeast.com)
"The security chief for Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Saturday that the Saudi government had access to Bezos' phone and gained private information from it," Reuters reports.
But in addition, the National Enquirer's lawyer "tried to get me to say there was no hacking," writes security specialist Gavin de Becker. I've recently seen things that have surprised even me, such as National Enquirer's parent company, AMI, being in league with a foreign nation that's been actively trying to harm American citizens and companies, including the owner of the Washington Post. You know him as Jeff Bezos; I know him as my client of 22 years... Why did AMI's people work so hard to identify a source, and insist to the New York Times and others that he was their sole source for everything? My best answer is contained in what happened next: AMI threatened to publish embarrassing photos of Jeff Bezos unless certain conditions were met. (These were photos that, for some reason, they had held back and not published in their first story on the Bezos affair, or any subsequent story.) While a brief summary of those terms has been made public before, others that I'm sharing are new -- and they reveal a great deal about what was motivating AMI.
An eight-page contract AMI sent for me and Bezos to sign would have required that I make a public statement, composed by them and then widely disseminated, saying that my investigation had concluded they hadn't relied upon "any form of electronic eavesdropping or hacking in their news-gathering process." Note here that I'd never publicly said anything about electronic eavesdropping or hacking -- and they wanted to be sure I couldn't.... An earlier set of their proposed terms included AMI making a statement "affirming that it undertook no electronic eavesdropping in connection with its reporting and has no knowledge of such conduct" -- but now they wanted me to say that for them. The contract further held that if Bezos or I were ever in our lives to "state, suggest or allude to" anything contrary to what AMI wanted said about electronic eavesdropping and hacking, then they could publish the embarrassing photos.
I'm writing this today because it's exactly what the Enquirer scheme was intended to prevent me from doing. Their contract also contained terms that would have inhibited both me and Bezos from initiating a report to law enforcement.
Things didn't work out as they hoped.
De Becker instead turned over his investigation's results to U.S. federal officials, then published today's essay warning the National Enquirer and its chairman have "evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country's leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced." He also suggests it's in response to the "relentless" coverage by the Washington Post (which Bezos owns) of the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
"Experts with whom we consulted confirmed New York Times reports on the Saudi capability to 'collect vast amounts of previously inaccessible data from smartphones in the air without leaving a trace -- including phone calls, texts, emails.'"
But in addition, the National Enquirer's lawyer "tried to get me to say there was no hacking," writes security specialist Gavin de Becker. I've recently seen things that have surprised even me, such as National Enquirer's parent company, AMI, being in league with a foreign nation that's been actively trying to harm American citizens and companies, including the owner of the Washington Post. You know him as Jeff Bezos; I know him as my client of 22 years... Why did AMI's people work so hard to identify a source, and insist to the New York Times and others that he was their sole source for everything? My best answer is contained in what happened next: AMI threatened to publish embarrassing photos of Jeff Bezos unless certain conditions were met. (These were photos that, for some reason, they had held back and not published in their first story on the Bezos affair, or any subsequent story.) While a brief summary of those terms has been made public before, others that I'm sharing are new -- and they reveal a great deal about what was motivating AMI.
An eight-page contract AMI sent for me and Bezos to sign would have required that I make a public statement, composed by them and then widely disseminated, saying that my investigation had concluded they hadn't relied upon "any form of electronic eavesdropping or hacking in their news-gathering process." Note here that I'd never publicly said anything about electronic eavesdropping or hacking -- and they wanted to be sure I couldn't.... An earlier set of their proposed terms included AMI making a statement "affirming that it undertook no electronic eavesdropping in connection with its reporting and has no knowledge of such conduct" -- but now they wanted me to say that for them. The contract further held that if Bezos or I were ever in our lives to "state, suggest or allude to" anything contrary to what AMI wanted said about electronic eavesdropping and hacking, then they could publish the embarrassing photos.
I'm writing this today because it's exactly what the Enquirer scheme was intended to prevent me from doing. Their contract also contained terms that would have inhibited both me and Bezos from initiating a report to law enforcement.
Things didn't work out as they hoped.
De Becker instead turned over his investigation's results to U.S. federal officials, then published today's essay warning the National Enquirer and its chairman have "evolved into trying to strong-arm an American citizen whom that country's leadership wanted harmed, compromised, and silenced." He also suggests it's in response to the "relentless" coverage by the Washington Post (which Bezos owns) of the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
"Experts with whom we consulted confirmed New York Times reports on the Saudi capability to 'collect vast amounts of previously inaccessible data from smartphones in the air without leaving a trace -- including phone calls, texts, emails.'"
Like Russians (aka the KGB) don't have control over TRUMP's phone every day.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Sounds like AMI/National Enquirer broke laws. Lock them up and throw away the keys.
This is your evidence of foreign countries trying to influence votes. Of course, you will hand wave it away since this particular dollar disaster is cheap
The contract further held that if Bezos or I were ever in our lives to "state, suggest or allude to" anything contrary to what AMI wanted said about electronic eavesdropping and hacking, then they could publish the embarrassing photos.
I Can't Believe It's Not Blackmail(TM)!
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
We love Saudi's because they aren't Commies right. And they love freedom and free markets just like us !!
Sounds like they were decrypting communications at the base station. So a MITM attack.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
And so confident and comfortable in himself that he doesn't need one.
Take notes, Orange.
Elon Musk somehow grew more hair over a 20 year span https://nyppagesix.files.wordp...
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
It doesn't make a difference if the signal came from an Android or an iPhone. Your lack of technical knowledge is showing.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Everyone knows what a network flight recorder does.
Hackers hate it, as you can 'replay' an attack and see how it was done. Their zero day is now shared for the cheap cost of a honeypot or sting operation.
And a spectrum analyser is cheap nowadays. Attach something to the phone that triggers recording when say battery current rises. Then auction off this trace.
We know MITM begins with unencrypted protocols. Just catch that CALEA packet.
One believes the ex-employees did cause a restricted technology transfer, and knew this was the probable outcome. Use increases discovery increases risk of being disclosed at a hackers conference - or worse. Hope prosecutions after a debrief occur.
The Saudis are pure evil, but Jeff Bezos is not exactly a saint himself who has been actively helping build various modern war and surveillance technologies. I would still take Bezos over the Saudis, though it's quite ironic to witness Bezos getting a taste of his own medicine.
It is not western gov that concern me. It is fascism such as this. When a gov works with businesses to destroying ppl, then you have issues. Look at how Russia and China have destroyed a number of ppl.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Islamophobia!!!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
The world revolves around the mandatory pricing of oil in U.S. dollars. Without this support, the U.S. dollar would be worthless and the U.S. bankrupt. The Saudis are the main focus of this hegemony and so control the American political posture.
That term is so sexist. Why isn't it a woman in the middle? And you know we'd like that better anyway.
Firstly, it would be next to impossible for anyone but the U.S. government or the relevant telecom companies. Secondly, exactly how he would learn that it was someone from Saudi Arabia, or even learn that someone had collected information to begin with, is not likely. Thirdly, the fact that they happily announce it publically like this makes no sense.
Verdict: bullshit. There is something else going on behind a statement like this.
I would think most governments are using technology to access foreign business leaders who may have important information they want. The more these VIP's use mobile devices for business the more tempting it is to find ways to access it.
These called petro-dollars but not US-dollars. Difference make all squirm merrily in slimy hole of tightness.
You Amerikuks are hilarious. Remember this when they kill your children by drone like pussy faggots and then call it incidental. Cocksucker.
Variations of this type of legal agreement are put into place every day. Some by prosecutors with political agendas. They might not be based on compromising pictures but they do have equal or even more serious threats. Personally I feel a free society shouldn't tolerate any form of non-disclosure law.
A woman in the middle would never be able to keep the secret, so the whole world would know about it in short order.
To understand the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, one must understand there are two governments in Saudi Arabia. There's the House of Saud, which is the royal family. They are responsible for international relations and members of the family hold many posts in government.
There is also the Ulama, the Islamic religious establishment. The Ulama runs a lot of the internal government, including schools. All royal proclamations (laws) have to be approved by the Ulama to take effect. The royal family nominates a new king, subject to the approval of the Ulama.
So over all the royal family *exercises* power, does things, but always subject to the authority of the Islamic religious authorities. The House of Saud is focused on day-to-day administration, the Ulama on the big picture. The official constitution of the country is the Qur'an.
Throughout the Middle East, including in Saudi Arabia, some of the Islamic leadership does things that the US doesn't like, including how they treat Christians and jews. Within that context of a region unfriendly to US values, the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have been relatively friendly to the United States and Western Europe.
So in short, the US tends to be friendly with part of the Saudi government - the royal family, while being very displeased by the actions of a separate part, the Ulama.
Bin Laden had been kicked out of Saudi Arabia nine years earlier, precisely for anti-US, anti-Western rhetoric. He was forced to leave in 1992 and officially stripped of Saudi citizenship in 1994. So no, he wasn't a Saudi in 2011.
Bin Laden had helped kick the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, ending in 1989. That made him a hero to many Arabs.
A few years later, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Saudi Arabia borders Iraq and Kuwait, so with Iraq invading its neighbors, Saudi Arabia was a next logical target for invasion. Bin Laden offered to mass a defensive army on the border to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Iraq. The Saudis turned him down, instead requesting help from the United States in this role. Note, this is the Saudis choosing the US over bin Laden a decade before 9-11.
Based on his experience in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, bin Laden very much did not like the idea of non-muslim military forces in Saudi Arabia. He spoke up about the Saudi royal family getting help from the outsiders (the US), saying some rather nasty things about the "infidels" and that got him kicked out of the country.
Had bin Laden been allowed to bring in the calvary to save the day in Saudi Arabia, he would be even more of a hero, he probably thought. He probably saw it as the US stealing his glory. On top of that, the royal family publicly chose the US over him, which would have been insulting. See why he was pretty pissed at the US?
Osama wanted revenge on the US partly because the Saudis rejected him, choosing to partner with the US instead.
It's due to the vast amounts of Chinese and US (FBI) government mandated backdoors in hardware and software. Mandated not by law, by the the government coming around and saying "No backdoor? Gee, what a nice business you have there, it would be a shame if we closed it down for months with a raid and then audited every penny of it. And we're sure there are plenty of regulations to slow you down compared to your competitors.... wait, you say you'll make a backdoor? Now you get it."
So Bezos vs MbS? Quite frankly, I donâ(TM)t like either one of them.
The elite foreugn controlled press is sayun the home grown red neck media is controlled by forugners.
Remember our current world situation was created all the way back in the 90s when Clinton received large bags o cash from the PRC to set themselves up as big dogs on the world stage.. I am glad someone is finnally saying, out In the open,that the USAian media is not working for the USA. However I would trust fringe untrustworthy sources like the enquirer and newswars b4 I trust Bezos rag that is advocating an end to national borders and a new world order based on service to the international fuedal Lord's such as himself.
The USA has been controlled by forugners a long time. Bezos has no more loyalty to the United States than Putin or President Xi
So in short, the US tends to be friendly with part of the Saudi government - the royal family, while being very displeased by the actions of a separate part, the Ulama.
Too bad that it is clearly a member of the royal family that ordered the murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi. Puts a damper on the narrative.
So you are pro-terrorist, raping and murdering of people who stand in the way or radicalism?
Gotcha
...writes security specialist Gavin de Becker.
sounds like Bezos needs a better security specialist.
Money corrupts absolutely.
This supported by lack of exception
It's super fucking simple. "Smart" phones are not secure, and are designed primarily as listening/data gathering devices. Important and wealthy people should NOT use smart phones. I'm a target (much smaller target than Bezos, obviously), and I use a smart phone as little as possible. As soon as the situation presents itself, I'll be getting rid of all of my smart phones for flip phones.
I don't respond to AC's.
I thought the brother already admitted selling this stuff to the Enquirerer for $200K.
I'll be getting rid of all of my smart phones for flip phones.
As even a small target, I'm amazed that you ever started using a smart phone in the first place. It's one of the things that the security people advised me to avoid. Back in the early days of smart phones.
Have gnu, will travel.
Interesting you mention adultery. Do you know who occupies the oval office of the US Whitehouse?
Recreational drugs? There was a lot of sniffling going on during the campaign speeches. Maybe just sinus.
Yeah, I spend all day in email. That's all I need my "smart" phone for. I should probably look into flip phones that handle email well.
I don't respond to AC's.
I spend all day in email. That's all I need my "smart" phone for. I should probably look into flip phones that handle email well.
Flip phones may have less attack surface than smarter phones, but they also have less security updates. There's no particular reason to believe that they are more secure. If you want a more secure smartphone, run LineageOS on an Android phone and don't add any accounts to the system, only to the email client. But ultimately, you don't control any cellphone; they all have closed blobs for their radios. There's literally no point to using a flip phone to get more security.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The main thing I don't want is Google or Apple capturing all of my data and tracking everything I do. I need to be able to use email all of the time, and make phone calls, but that's all I need.
I don't respond to AC's.
Hey asshole! How is that offtopic??! This is blockbuster material! Could even make a series, like the West Wing. And it's all bullshit anyway, so really there is no "topic"... execpt your stupid soap opera for the rich!
The main thing I don't want is Google or Apple capturing all of my data and tracking everything I do. I need to be able to use email all of the time, and make phone calls, but that's all I need.
That's why you'd be better off with LineageOS on a smartphone than with whatever ancient bullshit is on a flip phone. It's better for email. Like I said, just don't add any accounts to your phone, or your browser, and you'll get as close as possible to what you're looking for. Frankly, you could get that even with AOSP, but LineageOS is nicer than AOSP. The most important part is to get a popular phone which uses a popular SoC and which is also unlockable (both bootloader and SIM.) If you don't have that, you don't have anything.
I used to use a SEMC Xperia Play. The initial install was full of stock apps, etc. Official updates ended at gingerbread. But the device was fully unlockable, and unofficial upgrades got it up to ICS...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
What's a popular "SoC"? I do have a retail store where I can buy unlocked phones for cash (Micro Center!), luckily. The trick is just matching up what they have with the *exact* model that Lineage supports. I've tried that a couple of times, and both times found out after the fact that that particular, specific, sub-model didn't work with Lineage for whatever reason.
I don't respond to AC's.
Nope, forgot, it's only bad when other people do it.
Did your secret sources tell you something again...
Cant wait to laugh at you some more when it is released.
Birthright citizenship + welfare state = Vick nation
What's a popular "SoC"?
The more phones use the same System on Chip as your phone, the more support there will be for it, as a rule. I believe that Mali is the only GPU core that's got OSS drivers, so if that's a thing you might care about at some point, look for a SoC that's got a Mali GPU.
The trick is just matching up what they have with the *exact* model that Lineage supports.
Yes. And the supported models are generally based on what SoC they're built on, and the model for a certain frequency range in a specific region will often have a different model number and use a different SoC.
If you can actually lay your hands on unlocked phones, then you are in a position to get their model numbers, and look them up on XDA-Developers. Figure out which of the interesting ones have active development on there. Of those, pick one from a vendor which is historically friendly to unlocking, and if there's a choice, choose one for which the vendor has promised updates into the future.
I went with Moto X4 Android One edition, which Motorola has been clearing out at $150 for 3GB/32GB. It's IP68 and they have bootloader unlocking, and an OTA to Pie. LineageOS for this phone is Pie-based. First one had a bad speaker, but I'm happy with this one so far...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Cuck nation
Why not a woman of color in the middle? Nazi
Funny stereotype, but probably false. Women are better secret keepers than men. Adultry studies bear that out, as do studies on paternity fraud.
18 U.S.C. Â 873 defines blackmail as the threat to reveal someone's illegal acts (additional state laws may define blackmail in other ways.) So, this would be extortion, not blackmail.
Standard IANAL disclaimer
Your ad here. Ask me how!
For example Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4 were popular high end phones and are thus supported (I think you should go up to the S5 to have it _easily_ unlockable/flashable. but new ones are also supported anyhow)
The easiest is to look up computers in the list there (I refuse to call them "devices")
https://download.lineageos.org/
I'm surprised to not find the new Nokias there (they have good reputation for out-of-the-box)
The Sony phones or some of them, interestingly support Sailfish OS or even Ubuntu Phone (UBPorts)
Lineage OS 14.1 means Android 7.1, Lineage 15.1 is 8.1, 16.0 is 9.0
I can say 14.1 is not too fun, but my phone is old and doesn't make it pretty anyway (I suppose recent LCD is better than old OLED for size and outdoor brightness!). CPU/RAM specs don't seem to matter at all for low grade, no google no browser usage but an old phone has a bit too small of a screen and low battery life / slow charging. Well I would like a smaller screen to use it as a phone, but a bigger one to type on keyboard and do computer things. Bigger is a better bet..
I wondered why his hair looked so fake. I just chalked it up to eccentricity.
Cheap storage VM.
but it makes a difference if it was going to an Android. iPhone-to-iPhone is encrypted as an iMessage.
That's why he lies constantly, and makes up whatever crap he feels like.
You know you could just stop lying so much.