Google claims many exploits from WikiLeaks’ CIA documents already fixed

“We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security update”.

Samsung offered a similar response.

“We are aware of the report in question and are urgently looking into the matter”, Samsung told several media outlets. Microsoft says that the company is investigating these reports.

The news comes as the tech industry and USA intelligence community is still assessing the implications of the release of the WikiLeaks documents, which appear to be genuine, and which describe a variety of ways the CIA is able to spy on smartphones and Internet-connected television sets.

WikiLeaks touted its release of more than 8,700 documents and files as the largest publication of confidential CIA information in the agency’s history.

The U.S. intelligence community is scrambling to find the source of the massive leak of classified CIA documents, which lay out, in detail, the tools the agency uses to conduct covert monitoring of electronic devices – everything from iPhones to smart televisions.

Gus Hosein, executive director of the Privacy International campaign group, said: “The fact that the U.S. government was identifying ways to undermine security of commonly used consumer devices and are even talking about hacking automobiles, that flies in the face of the Obama Administration’s response to the Snowden revelations”. WikiLeaks said it planned to avoid distributing tools “until a consensus emerges” on the political nature of the CIA’s program and how such software could be analyzed, disarmed and published. “But if these documents are authentic, it does reveal Central Intelligence Agency capabilities”. “Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the security and privacy of Americans”.

But WikiLeaks claims that documents it obtained show that through a program called Weeping Angel, the target TV appears to be off when it is actually on – and listening.

The CIA is able to remotely hack into smartphones using the software or hardware flaws known as “zero-day exploits” that have not been yet identified as vulnerabilities in devices by the manufacturer.

USA officials also allege WikiLeaks has ties to Russian intelligence agencies.

The almost 9,000-page hacking trove released by WikiLeaks include tools and methods for gaining access to iPhones, Android smartphones and even one model of an internet-connected television.

Snowden, who was a contract employee for the NSA before he stole and leaked secret materials, said via Twitter that the document trove ‘looks authentic’.

The leaks also expose other areas of CIA interest such as an agency effort to hack into the control panels of cars and trucks. The Web site posted thousands of e-mails stolen from Democratic party computer networks during the 2016 presidential campaign, files that US intelligence agencies concluded were obtained and turned over to WikiLeaks as part of a cyber campaign orchestrated by the Kremlin.