According to a local news source, around 200 phones belonging to Jordanian journalists, activists, and officials of the royal court were among the thousands targeted in the hacking scandal involving Israeli corporations.
Samir Hiari, the publisher of Ammon News, said he was made aware of the breaches by a Reuters journalist who was investigating the matter.
According to the report, Apple notified many Jordanians of a probable security compromise, including lawyer Hala Ahed, social media star Deema Amad, and Senator Mustafa Hamarneh.
“Once we gathered the information, we discovered that slightly less than 200 people — including members of the royal court and the Olympic committee and activists — were victims of the hacking, which included the deletion of all content on their phones, including WhatsApp content, messages, photos, videos, and text messages,” he said.
According to a US source reported by Ammon News reporter Ahmad Hiari, it was still unclear whether “any local parties helped with Tel Aviv in the hacking.”
Rana Sabbagh, co-founder and former executive director of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, described how she learned her phones had been hacked, in an interview.
“After a friend informed me that they had gotten a communication from Apple, I decided to send both of my phones to be inspected by OCCRP data security experts.”
Sabbagh, who is now a senior editor at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, stated that the forensic examination revealed the two phones were compromised.
“We discovered that they were compromised between July 2020 and April 2021. In September 2021, another coworker from the same organization discovered their phone had been hacked,” she explained.
