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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:16AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @02:16AM (#476273)

    WRT classification: Bureaucracy, whether the government variety or not, always has to play catch up to the real world.

    WRT copyright: Copyright is a red herring, actually using these tools is criminal and obeying copyright is at the bottom of the list of a criminal's concerns.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:45AM (2 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:45AM (#476311) Journal

    I think Assange was pointing out that 1) he wasn't releasing classified info, and 2) if the Feds wanted to try something like they did Kim Dotcom - they don't have a copyright on the material. He was also pointing out that it reduces the charges that hackers could face.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:57AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:57AM (#476313)

      Or he was just throwing some red-meat to his base.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:51AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 08 2017, @04:51AM (#476333) Journal

        As the two aren't mutually exclusive, can be both.
        Thus, would you object to "pointing out there's a whole bunch of legislation that won't apply" only because Assange is "throwing some red-meat to his base.".

        BTW, care to explain what "throwing some red-meat to his base." means? You make it sound like it's something shameful, but your metaphor is wasted on me, I can't "translate" it into the actual intended meaning.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford