In the case of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos’ iPhone X hack, a recent commissioned forensic report found that his device was compromised by a video MP4 file he received on WhatsApp. While this raised questions about the platform's security, Facebook has passed on the blame to Apple's operating system saying that WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is unhackable.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, in an interview with the BBC Radio 4 Today, Facebook's Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications, Nick Clegg, said: "We're as sure as you can be that the technology of end-to-end encryption cannot be hacked into." He says he was "very, very confident" that Jeff Bezos wasn't hacked via Whatsapp.

"We're as sure as you can be that the technology of end-to-end encryption cannot be hacked into" - Facebook's @nick_clegg says he's "very, very confident" that Jeff Bezos wasn't hacked via Whatsapp #r4Today | @MishalHusain | https://t.co/NHsmYG4H4W pic.twitter.com/E4Cf4h1Viu

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) January 24, 2020

Quite vaguely he explained that it was probably after the video file was accessed on the device that it "affected the phone's operating system".

Investigators believe the hack is similar to how phones of 1,400 journalists and human rights activists were broken into by Pegasus software from Israel-based NSO Group last year.

(Also read: The Jeff Bezos hack is a lesson that everyone is vulnerable to a similar attack)

Last year, Bezos went public about the hack after the National Enquirer tabloid threatened to publish Bezos’ private photos if he didn’t call off a private investigation into the hacking of his phone. It’s not clear if those two events are related. The Saudis have denied any involvement in the purported hack.