WikiLeaks publishes massive trove of CIA spying files in 'Vault 7' release
[*]Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 7 March 2017 16:56 GMT
Julian Assange claims that documents are the most comprehensive CIA release ever and are far larger than the Snowden files
Click to follow
The Independent Tech
![[Image: cia.jpg]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_large/public/thumbnails/image/2017/03/07/13/cia.jpg)
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=736x0]https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_small/public/thumbnails/image/2017/03/07/13/cia.jpg[/img]A janitor mops the floor at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency 03 March, 2005 in Langley, Virginia BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images[/color]
WikiLeaks has published ,
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...15671.html
a huge trove of what appear to be CIA spying secrets.
[*]
The files were made available by a source who intended for them to start a conversation about whether the CIA had gained too much power, according to the organisation.
[*]
My personal thoughts & comment,
They have taken over looking into the peoples everyday life that the agency is supposed to be protecting....and letting stay private unless there is a valid reason to look into.
We have become a police state and don't even know it.
It knows no bounds except control and the goals it has, which are dubious at best
back to article.
[*]
The files are the most comprehensive release of US spying files ever made public, according to Julian Assange. In all, there are 8,761 documents that account for "the entire hacking capacity of the CIA", Mr Assange claimed in a release, and the trove is just the first of a series of "Vault 7" leaks.
Already, the files include far more pages than the Snowden files that exposed the vast hacking power of the NSA and other agencies.
In publishing the documents, WikiLeaks had ensured that the CIA had "lost control of its arsenal", he claimed.
That included a range of software and exploits that if real could allow unparalleled control of computers around the world.
Gadgets and tech news in pictures
It includes software that could allow people to take control of the most popular consumer electronics products used today, claimed WikiLeaks.
"'Year Zero' introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products,
include Apple's iPhone,
Google's Android and
Microsoft's Windows
and even Samsung TVs,
which are turned into covert microphones," the organisation said in a release.
The public files don't include the cyber weapons themselves, according to a statement. The organisation will refrain from distributing "armed" software "until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA's program and how such 'weapons' should analyzed, disarmed and published", it said.
The files were made available by a source who intended for them to start a conversation about whether the CIA had gained too much power, according to the organisation.
"In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency,"
a release read. "The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons."
It also redacts the details of some of the names, locations and targets that are identified in the documents.
The organisation had teased the release in advance with strange messages about the release being "Year Zero", and references to "Vault 7". It had planned to release the files later on but that plan was thrown off when its press conference came under cyber attack, Mr Assange claimed.
[*][size=undefined]
[img=25x0]safari-reader://www.independent.co.uk/sites/all/themes/ines_themes/independent_theme/img/reuse.png[/img]Reuse content[/size]
[*]
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/...ia-9981832
WikiLeaks claims CIA targeted iPhones, Microsoft and turned Samsung TVs into microphones in global hacking programme
[color=rgba(27, 27, 27, 0.65098)]MI5 are also accused of working with the CIA to turn Samsung TVs into microphones[/color]
ByRachel Bishop
News[/size][/size]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://brightcove04.o.brightcove.com/4221396001/4221396001_5174539994001_5174530709001-vs.jpg?pubId=4221396001[/img][/color]
WikiLeaks has claimed the CIA hacked iPhones and Microsoft Windows and worked with MI5 to turn Samsung TVs into microphones as part of a global hacking programme.
The secretive organisation is about to release a huge trove of confidential documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as part of its mysterious Year Zero series, founder Julian Assange claimed.
It has issued the release amid claims the CIA has been carrying out a global covert hacking program that exploits US and European companies.
It even claimed the CIA was using hacked mobile phones and vehicle control systems in modern cars to carry out assasinations.
It claims these include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which it says "are turned into covert microphones."
Mr Assange was set to speak about Year Zero on Facebook today, but a livestream of the event was reportedly hacked. It is not clear when the event has been rescheduled to.
In an online statement on its website, Wikileaks also claims the attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5/BTSS.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7358396.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/CIA.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)](Photo: Getty)[/color]
It claims "Weeping Angel", developed by the CIA's Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones.
The organisation added: "After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on.
CIA planned to hack cars and trucks to carry out undetectable assassinations claims WikiLeaks
"In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert CIA server."
The group also claims from October 2014 the CIA was "looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks" to enable them to "engage in nearly undetectable assassinations."
They added: "The CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones."
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9810111.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Julian-Assange-extradition.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Photo: PA)[/color]
They claimed these included iPhones, which account for 14% of the market and Google Android, "which is used to run the majority of the world's smart phones (85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year."
[*]They claimed: "Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user's geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone's camera and microphone."
[*]
They claimed the CIA could then "bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the "smart" phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied."
Read More
WikiLeaks Year Zero cache
They also claimed the CIA also runs "a very substantial effort to infect and control Microsoft Windows users with its malware, infecting CDs, DVDs and USB sticks.
The hacking group said the publication release as part of Year Zero is from 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9902713.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/FILE-PHOTO-An-Apple-iPhone-7-and-the-company-logo-are-seen-in-this-illustration-picture-taken-in-B.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)](Photo: REUTERS)[/color]
Wikileaks said: "Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation.
"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.
"The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."
"By the end of 2016, the CIA's hacking division, which formally falls under the agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other "weaponized" malware.
"Such is the scale of the CIA's undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook.
[*]![[Image: Samsung-tv.jpg]](http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article5160162.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Samsung-tv.jpg)
[*]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article5160162.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Samsung-tv.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]Wikileaks claimed the attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5 (Photo: Samsung)[/color]
[*]
"The CIA had created, in effect, its "own NSA" with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified."
[*]
Mr Assange has been under investigation by the US since 2010 when WikiLeaks published confidential military documents.
[*]
In the same year, the Swedish Director of Public Prosecution opened an investigation into sexual offences Assange is alleged to have committed.
In 2012, facing extradition to Sweden, he took refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador in London after being granted political asylum.
In August 2014, he announced he would be leaving the embassy "soon".
[*]Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 7 March 2017 16:56 GMT
Julian Assange claims that documents are the most comprehensive CIA release ever and are far larger than the Snowden files
Click to follow
The Independent Tech
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=736x0]https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/styles/article_small/public/thumbnails/image/2017/03/07/13/cia.jpg[/img]A janitor mops the floor at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency 03 March, 2005 in Langley, Virginia BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images[/color]
WikiLeaks has published ,
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...15671.html
a huge trove of what appear to be CIA spying secrets.
[*]
The files were made available by a source who intended for them to start a conversation about whether the CIA had gained too much power, according to the organisation.
[*]
My personal thoughts & comment,
They have taken over looking into the peoples everyday life that the agency is supposed to be protecting....and letting stay private unless there is a valid reason to look into.
We have become a police state and don't even know it.
It knows no bounds except control and the goals it has, which are dubious at best
back to article.
[*]
The files are the most comprehensive release of US spying files ever made public, according to Julian Assange. In all, there are 8,761 documents that account for "the entire hacking capacity of the CIA", Mr Assange claimed in a release, and the trove is just the first of a series of "Vault 7" leaks.
Already, the files include far more pages than the Snowden files that exposed the vast hacking power of the NSA and other agencies.
In publishing the documents, WikiLeaks had ensured that the CIA had "lost control of its arsenal", he claimed.
That included a range of software and exploits that if real could allow unparalleled control of computers around the world.
Gadgets and tech news in pictures
It includes software that could allow people to take control of the most popular consumer electronics products used today, claimed WikiLeaks.
"'Year Zero' introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products,
include Apple's iPhone,
Google's Android and
Microsoft's Windows
and even Samsung TVs,
which are turned into covert microphones," the organisation said in a release.
The public files don't include the cyber weapons themselves, according to a statement. The organisation will refrain from distributing "armed" software "until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA's program and how such 'weapons' should analyzed, disarmed and published", it said.
The files were made available by a source who intended for them to start a conversation about whether the CIA had gained too much power, according to the organisation.
"In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency,"
a release read. "The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons."
It also redacts the details of some of the names, locations and targets that are identified in the documents.
The organisation had teased the release in advance with strange messages about the release being "Year Zero", and references to "Vault 7". It had planned to release the files later on but that plan was thrown off when its press conference came under cyber attack, Mr Assange claimed.
- More about:
- WikiLeaks
- Julian Assange
- CIA
[*][size=undefined]
[img=25x0]safari-reader://www.independent.co.uk/sites/all/themes/ines_themes/independent_theme/img/reuse.png[/img]Reuse content[/size]
[*]
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/...ia-9981832
WikiLeaks claims CIA targeted iPhones, Microsoft and turned Samsung TVs into microphones in global hacking programme
[color=rgba(27, 27, 27, 0.65098)]MI5 are also accused of working with the CIA to turn Samsung TVs into microphones[/color]
ByRachel Bishop
- 15:12, 7 MAR 2017
- Updated17:08, 7 MAR 2017
News[/size][/size]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://brightcove04.o.brightcove.com/4221396001/4221396001_5174539994001_5174530709001-vs.jpg?pubId=4221396001[/img][/color]
WikiLeaks has claimed the CIA hacked iPhones and Microsoft Windows and worked with MI5 to turn Samsung TVs into microphones as part of a global hacking programme.
The secretive organisation is about to release a huge trove of confidential documents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as part of its mysterious Year Zero series, founder Julian Assange claimed.
It has issued the release amid claims the CIA has been carrying out a global covert hacking program that exploits US and European companies.
It even claimed the CIA was using hacked mobile phones and vehicle control systems in modern cars to carry out assasinations.
It claims these include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which it says "are turned into covert microphones."
Mr Assange was set to speak about Year Zero on Facebook today, but a livestream of the event was reportedly hacked. It is not clear when the event has been rescheduled to.
In an online statement on its website, Wikileaks also claims the attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5/BTSS.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7358396.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/CIA.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)](Photo: Getty)[/color]
It claims "Weeping Angel", developed by the CIA's Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones.
The organisation added: "After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on.
CIA planned to hack cars and trucks to carry out undetectable assassinations claims WikiLeaks
"In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert CIA server."
The group also claims from October 2014 the CIA was "looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks" to enable them to "engage in nearly undetectable assassinations."
They added: "The CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones."
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9810111.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Julian-Assange-extradition.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Photo: PA)[/color]
They claimed these included iPhones, which account for 14% of the market and Google Android, "which is used to run the majority of the world's smart phones (85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year."
[*]They claimed: "Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user's geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone's camera and microphone."
[*]
They claimed the CIA could then "bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the "smart" phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied."
Read More
WikiLeaks Year Zero cache
- [/url]
[img=0x0]http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9982760.ece/ALTERNATES/s482b/MAIN-Untitled-1.jpg[/img]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]MI5 ad CIA collaborations[/color]
[img=0x0]http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9810111.ece/ALTERNATES/s482b/Julian-Assange-extradition.jpg[/img]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]Undetectable assassinations plan[/color]
[img=0x0]http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9789271.ece/ALTERNATES/s482b/PROD-green-code-hacker.jpg[/img]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]What is a Zero Day hack?[/color]
[img=0x0]http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9982153.ece/ALTERNATES/s482b/MAIN-wikileaks.jpg[/img]
[url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/year-zero-series-wikileaks-cia-9981832][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]'CIA spied on iPhones and laptops'[/color]
They also claimed the CIA also runs "a very substantial effort to infect and control Microsoft Windows users with its malware, infecting CDs, DVDs and USB sticks.
The hacking group said the publication release as part of Year Zero is from 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence.
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9902713.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/FILE-PHOTO-An-Apple-iPhone-7-and-the-company-logo-are-seen-in-this-illustration-picture-taken-in-B.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)](Photo: REUTERS)[/color]
Wikileaks said: "Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation.
"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.
"The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."
"By the end of 2016, the CIA's hacking division, which formally falls under the agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other "weaponized" malware.
"Such is the scale of the CIA's undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook.
[*]
[*]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)][img=0x0]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article5160162.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Samsung-tv.jpg[/img][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098)]Wikileaks claimed the attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5 (Photo: Samsung)[/color]
[*]
"The CIA had created, in effect, its "own NSA" with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified."
[*]
Mr Assange has been under investigation by the US since 2010 when WikiLeaks published confidential military documents.
[*]
In the same year, the Swedish Director of Public Prosecution opened an investigation into sexual offences Assange is alleged to have committed.
In 2012, facing extradition to Sweden, he took refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador in London after being granted political asylum.
In August 2014, he announced he would be leaving the embassy "soon".
It is Well with My Soul 