85% of world’s smart phones ‘weaponized’ by Central Intelligence Agency

WikiLeaks on Tuesday published thousands of documents purportedly taken from the Central Intelligence Agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence, a dramatic release that appears to expose intimate details of the spy agency’s hacking activities.

The transcripts showed that CIA hackers, in partnership with other United States and foreign agencies, has been able to bypass the encryption on popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.

It alleges that CIA infested and collected intelligence through smart TVs, and phone.

Scott Uehlinger said the information released in Tuesday’s document dump is far more damaging to the US than other information WikiLeaks has released.

While iPhones comprise only 14.5 percent of the global smart phone market, WikiLeaks said the focus on Apple’s iOS operating system “may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political, diplomatic and business elites”.

The agency apparently had access to 24 different “zero days” for Android devices, which allowed it to bypass the end-to-end encryption of apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Weibo and Confide, collecting the message data sent through the device before the encryption was applied to the messages.

Perhaps most worrying is the potential for the malware and exploits to fall into the wrong hands, such as rogue foreign actors, criminals or even domestic hackers.

WikiLeaks said the data came from an “isolated, high-security network” inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina, headquarters.

Vault 7 is described by WikiLeaks as “the largest ever publication of confidential documents” from the CIA, and reveals that a wide variety of consumer electronics is vulnerable to hacking attacks by the agency. One of these people provided Wikileaks with the documents they have just released.

WikiLeaks said the source of the documents handed them over because they think a national conversation needs to be had about “whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers”. If it proves to be authentic, then it paints an intimate picture of America’s cyber-espionage efforts.

WikiLeaks suggests in its press release that the encrypted messaging apps themselves may have been compromised, but that is not the case. We’re actively reaching out to companies mentioned in the WikiLeaks documents and will update this story as the news develops.

An Apple spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment.

The documents leaked include details on a project dubbed “Weeping Angel“, which appears to be able to turn your TV into a listening device.