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The anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks said Tuesday that it has obtained a vast portion of the CIA's computer hacking arsenal, and began posting the files online in a breach that may expose some of the U.S. intelligence community's most closely guarded cyber weapons.
A statement from WikiLeaks indicated that it planned to post nearly 9,000 files describing code developed in secret by the CIA to steal data from targets overseas and turn ordinary devices including cellphones, computers and even television sets into surveillance tools.
The hacking organisation made the statement as it announced a huge release of confidential documents from the CIA as part of its mysterious Year Zero series, founder Julian Assange claimed. The group said that 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."
takyon: WikiLeaks: Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed and (selected document) Weeping Angel (Extending) Engineering Notes. Also at NYT, USA Today, BBC, and Reuters. The Hill reports that Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu has called for an investigation... into the leak of the documents and tools.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:00AM (14 children)
Are you autistic?
Otherwise you don't have an excuse for not recognizing that Lieu is talking about the content, not the form.
While I personally think the content of this leak is helpful because I believe the government should disclose security vulnerabilities to vendors rather than hoard zero-days, I can appreciate the difference between leaking information on tools that are helpful to american interests and leaking information about behavior which in no way serves american interests.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:30AM (6 children)
Your implicit assumption is that the behaviour actually serves american interest.
Please explain how do you reconcile in your head the ideas "american public is better served by the vulns disclosure" and "cia does not disclose the vulns, yet it serves american interest"?
What guarantees you have cia won't use them on you, as AC as you think you might be?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:10AM (5 children)
> What guarantees you have cia won't use them on you, as AC as you think you might be?
Whether it is also used on me does not negate the value of using it on american adversaries.
I think you fail at basic boolean logic.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:03AM (4 children)
Yeah, sure, it matters more we are able to throw shit to out adversaries, just don't look onto the fact these adversaries can use the same shit against the population we are sworn to protect.
No, this is absolutely not a problem, we need to investigate how come our obscurity was dispersed (i.e. who has leaked unclassified material?), just forget about the failure on the "protect our citizens" mission, it's not important (what I tell you three times is true).
You'd make a good politician, spinning the things like that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:10AM (3 children)
Sorry dude, are those italics supposed to be words you are putting in my mouth?
Because, frankly I'm having trouble figuring out what the hell your point is other than random outrage.
Perhaps your meds need adjusting?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:16AM (2 children)
That is what I understood from your position. Would you be willing to discuss, you only need to correct it**
My point you ask?
My point is: "I fail to see how Ted Lieu concentrating on who leaked rather than what is the rationale CIA lets american public vulnerable" can be considered as logical.
---
** Based on the "Perhaps your meds need adjusting?" I have some doubts discussion is possible, so perhaps we might as well let the things how they are and agree to ignore each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:41AM (1 child)
> That is what I understood from your position.
Nah, more like something you dreamt up and decided to project on to anyone who thinks your first post was non-sensical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @06:20AM
(yeap. No discussion possible. Thanks for your time)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:13AM (6 children)
You seem to have been indoctrinated with the idea that anything NSA/CIA/FBI does is "in the American interest".
If we define "American interest" as something that benefits "we the people", it is hard to see how all this hacking nonsense benefits "American interests". In point of fact, this "Hack the World" craze only benefits an exceedingly small number of "we the people".
If any of us, or any members of our families, or any members of "we the people" actually benefit from hacking Germany's government, that benefit is only incidental, and wholly unintended. All benefits of hacking allied nation's government accrue to a small set of special interests. All of those special interests are either corporate interests, or political interests. Of roughly 350 million American citizens, far less than a million Americans actually benefit from this mind boggling "Hack the World" initiative. I highly doubt that more than a few thousand people see any real benefit from it. Corporate chiefs and political aspirants see immediate benefits.
But, who pays the price for all of it? Most certainly NOT those individuals who benefit. Nope, it's "We the People" who pay for it, in the form of taxes, lost privacy, more insane laws, embittered foreign relations, and more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:34AM (5 children)
> You seem to have been indoctrinated with the idea that anything NSA/CIA/FBI does is "in the American interest".
You also seem to fail at basic boolean logic.
The fact that the intelligence agencies do things that are not in the american interest does not negate the fact that they also do stuff in the american interest.
While internal whitehouse fuckups are never in the american interest.
That's the comparison colo complained about, nothing more. And you are both dunces for trying to make to make Lieu's complaint anything more than that.
Given your posting history, it seems likely that if it were internal fuckups of a Clinton whitehouse you'd be right there with me.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:42AM (4 children)
Boolean logic has little to do with a concept called "values". Do I value American hegemony more, or do I value liberty more? This may be a tough one to call, for some people. We, Americans, have demonstrated that we are willing to sacrifice our own personal liberties for the sake of security. How much more willing are we to sacrifice other people's liberties, for the sake of our own security?
Regarding that American/Western hegemony - overthrowing that legitimately elected democratic government that I mentioned earlier has worked AGAINST all American interests. One of those unintended consequences, ya know? But, money talks, and bullshit walks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:55AM
> Boolean logic has little to do with a concept called "values"
Since nobody was talking about values, its good you have identified that you are completely off-topic.
Now, if you could only figure out the prescription for being off-topic...
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:34AM (1 child)
FTFY.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:04PM
Thank you, Sir. Your fix is highly appropriate.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @12:43PM
What's that expression, "The Fruit of a Poisoned Tree?" The CIA tortures people. Torture is a war crime. Therefore, nothing they ever do can be good. Indeed, their very existence has become antithetical to American values.
I personally feel that is also true of the NSA and the federal government more broadly.
But I don't hear a lot of people asserting American values these days, as you have and as I do. I remember as a kid everybody asserting those virtues all the time as something good guys strove for. The heros in every story were always hewing to the hard path of staying true to those ideals and never giving in to the temptation of becoming just like those they were trying to fight. Now, it's become fashionable to be as depraved as possible, as quickly as possible. The idea of good vs. evil has been so thoroughly deconstructed that nobody really knows what those things mean anymore. There's only power, who has it vs. who doesn't.
Washington DC delenda est.