WikiLeaks Drops Another Bombshell, This Time on Central Intelligence Agency

The documents, which detail some of the CIA’s hacking capabilities, are part of a larger trove of data Wikileaks says it will continue to release in a series.

WikiLeaks, which claims the data dump is bigger than the cache of secrets revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, said cyberspooks at Langley have been using all the dark arts of hacking to crack into US and European products, such as Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, and Microsoft programs. The agency’s abilities can take aim at a number of popular consumer products from companies like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft, turning everything from an iPhone to a smart TV into a “covert microphone”.

The cache from WikiLeaks, dubbed Vault 7, includes 8,761 files that focus primarily on the CIA’s “hacking arsenal”.

The law enforcement organization – which has not confirmed whether the documents are authentic – maintains its own hacking practices, specifically to be used for espionage.

WikiLeaks said that by the end of previous year, the CIA’s own hacking division, the Center for Cyber Intelligence, had more than 5,000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems. Tactics for breaching iPhones, iPads, Android devices, PCs, routers, and even smart TVs are included in the leak, which has some serious privacy and security implications if even a fraction of it proves to be accurate.

While the leaked Central Intelligence Agency documents don’t appear to name Mr. Trump, the dump further highlights the real risks brought on by the commander-in-chief’s frequent early morning tweet storms.

We will keep our readers updated as in-depth analysis of the leaked documents is shared.

The FAQ section of the release yields some key details that highlight the true extent of the leak: firstly, the information was “obtained recently and covers through 2016”. The whistleblowing organisation revealed “Year Zero” on social after careful review, but held back publishing data on “armed cyberweapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA’s programme”.

Another CIA program, code-named “Weeping Angel”, meanwhile, reportedly used Samsung “smart” televisions as secret listening devices by recording conversations and sending them to a CIA server when the TV appeared to be turned off, according to WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks claims the CIA worked with United Kingdom intelligence officials to turn microphones in TVs into listening devices. Similar to “Earth/Eve” and “Moon”, the iOS exploits, WikiLeaks also describes zero days stockpiled by the CIA’s team for hacking Android devices.

WikiLeaks published tranches of secret government information in the past and played a prominent role in the 2016 US presidential election by disclosing internal emails of senior Democratic Party officials.