Apple says most vulnerabilities in Wikileaks docs are already patched

The Central Intelligence Agency has maintained a wide range of exploits to hack into smartphones and other connected devices, according to a trove of almost 9,000 government documents released by WikiLeaks Tuesday. It further says these documents were “circulated among former USA government hackers and contractors”-and that one of them shared the info with WikiLeaks”.

But WikiLeaks – a nonprofit that routinely publishes confidential documents, frequently from government sources – claims that the data and documents it obtained reveal a broad program to bypass security measures on everyday products.

Cutthroat and Swindle are part of the CIA’s multiplatform Hive “malware suite” that targets Windows, Linux and Solaris operating systems and MikroTik internet routers and helps establish communication with the infected systems, according to the released documents. The documents also detail how the government has allegedly hacked into smart TV’s, in particular those made by Samsung. These tools represent millions of dollars of investment and man-hours.

“This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the Central Intelligence Agency”, it wrote in a press release issued by the group. Bob Ayers, retired US Intelligence official noted that Wikileaks has promised that it would release more CIA documents.

As is customary for WikiLeaks, the organization focuses on releasing documents or the details of security vulnerabilities without first informing the relevant tech companies – which is the standard procedure followed in the security industry.

“The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure created to damage the Intelligence Community’s ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries”, the statement read.

A CIA spokesman, Dean Boyd, said, “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents”. (Or, to continue that metaphor from earlier, holding one of the cans to their ear.) It’s not up to groups like Open Whisper Systems to prevent that eavesdropping-people have to be careful about how they use their devices, and manufacturers have to make those devices as hard to hack as possible.

WikiLeaks also claimed that almost all of the CIA’s arsenal of privacy-crushing cyberweapons have been stolen, and the tools are potentially in the hands of criminals and foreign spies.

Here, for example, is how WhatsApp of Mountain View markets its security: “Privacy and security is in our DNA, which is why we have end-to-end encryption in the latest versions of our app”, the firm’s online marketing materials say. If confirmed, the massive leak of confidential documents will prove to be a new embarrassment for the United States intelligence.