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posted by takyon on Tuesday March 07 2017, @11:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the year-zero dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:57AM (1 child)

    by RamiK (1813) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @01:57AM (#476263)

    Looks like they have a whole USB stick kit going on: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_3375125.html [wikileaks.org]

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:48AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:48AM (#476282)

    "EFI" made me think of EFF, here's their initial press release,
        https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/hey-cia-you-held-security-flaw-information-now-its-out-thats-not-how-it-should [eff.org]

    The dark side of this story is that the documents confirm that the CIA holds on to security vulnerabilities in software and devices—including Android phones, iPhones, and Samsung televisions—that millions of people around the world rely on. The agency appears to have failed to accurately assess the risk of not disclosing vulnerabilities to responsible vendors and failed to follow even the limited Vulnerabilities Equities Process. As these leaks show, we're all made less safe by the CIA's decision to keep -- rather than ensure the patching of -- vulnerabilities. Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the security and privacy of Americans.