WikiLeaks dump ‘equips’ USA adversaries — Central Intelligence Agency

According to Bloomberg, the 8,761 documents and files posted by Wikileaks on Tuesday are allegedly coming from the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence.

Comparing the release to similar surveillance revelations from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks said part one of the Vault 7 documents “already eclipses the total number of pages published over the first three years of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks”. We haven’t yet independently verified the information.

In a statement, WikiLeaks founder and chief editor Julian Assange said that the documents show the “extreme risk” of the uncontrolled spread of cyber weapons.

According to The Washington Post, the latest revelations about US government’s powerful hacking tools suggest that a variety of everyday devices can be turned to spy on their owners.

What do I need to know?

But in the hours since the documents were made available, a common misconception of the leak is that the security of encrypted messaging apps, many of which have grown in popularity during the past six months, has been compromised. However, it’s not exactly a surprise that these devices are able to be hacked, said Engin Kirda, professor of computer science at Northeastern University. But again, that’s if the info is real.

It’s that second sentence that’s vital here: It’s not that the encryption on Signal, WhatsApp (which uses the same encryption protocol as Signal), or Telegram has been broken.

The OS shows what’s on screen, listens to you typing or dictating words, and captures that unencrypted original data. In a news release, WikiLeaks said its source “wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons”. Such is the scale of the CIA’s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook.

How did it hack these devices? On reports that the CIA had created “attack and control systems” for Linux-based software, The Linux Foundation CTO Nicko van Someren told BBC that given the popularity of the platform it was not surprising that state agencies from many countries would target it.

We’re still not sure.

The U.S. government has said that WikiLeaks is a tool of Russian intelligence agencies.

“Year Zero”, Wikileaks writes, “introduces the scope and direction of the CIA’s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of “zero day” weaponized exploits” against vulnerabilities in smartphones, computers, and Samsung smart TVs.

The WSJ reports that Apple engineers are working to address the remaining iOS exploits reportedly used by the Central Intelligence Agency, but they and other tech companies are being hampered by two factors. If that’s true, it would mean all affected companies would need to patch these vulnerabilities to secure the devices.

This story is still developing. Check back for updates.