WikiLeaks claims leaked Central Intelligence Agency docs show TVs can be used for surveillance

The enormous amount of documents collected by WikiLeaks is still being analyzed, as the full first section of the series, being named “Year Zero” includes 8,761 documents on its own. Such is the scale of the CIA’s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. Here is our rundown of some of the main revelations.

“The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom’s MI5/BTSS”.

WikiLeaks said the information contains details about the CIA’s ability to hack into technology, like Smart TV’s and use the microphones to listen in on conversations. Who, and reportedly developed with British intelligence MI-5, is created to turn a Samsung internet connected tv anywhere in the world into a secret listening device – even when appearing to be turned off.

The CIA Mobile Devices Branch has a specialised unit dedicated to hacking iOS devices. It can also allegedly use your phone’s camera. The Wikileaks files claim the malware was used in an attack alongside MI5.

What this means is that by infecting smartphones, the Central Intelligence Agency can get around encryption technologies of popular apps like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Weibo, and Confide and collect information before it is encrypted by sophisticated software, in essence rendering the security measures useless. Hackers from the agency are capable of recording sounds, images, and text messages of users, even when apps with encryption are utilized.

Apple this evening has issued a statement on the matter, saying that “many of the issues leaked today were already patched” in the most recent version of iOS.

However, experts – including NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – say they appear to be authentic.

Snowden on Twitter said the files amount to the first public evidence that the U.S. government secretly buys software to exploit technology.

WikiLeaks said its source released the files because they believed the CIA’s spying program “urgently need to be debated in public”, echoing the motives of many previous leakers.

In 2014, hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek using their laptops while in the vehicle, took over a Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by a reporter for Wired, as they were traveling on the highway.

WikiLeaks, known for exposing secret documents just released one of the biggest leaks.