Bezos allegations put phone hacking technology in the spotlight

Allegations that Amazon.com boss and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos had his phone hacked by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have put a spotlight on the security of smartphones and the secretive tools used to hack them.

Smartphones are effectively pocket-sized computers that run apps on operating systems such as Apple's iOS or Google's Android. Those devices have enabled a new world of connectivity unlimited free calls over WhatsApp, for example, or an atlas worth of up-to-the-second maps from Google - but also a parade of potential security problems.

Here is how smartphones can be hijacked and a look at the potential consequences and the thriving market in surveillance vendors helping the world's spies get access to people's secrets. Smartphones operate through a collection of apps, sometimes scores of them, running over an operating system, which in turn runs on a complex piece of hardware embedded with receptors, lenses and sensors.