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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: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:13AM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:13AM (#476299) Journal

    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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:34AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:34AM (#476307)

    > 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)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:42AM (#476310) Journal

      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

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 08 2017, @03:55AM (#476312)

        > 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)

        by Whoever (4524) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @05:34AM (#476343) Journal

        We, Americans, have demonstrated that we are willing to sacrifice our own personal liberties for the sake illusion of security.

        FTFY.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 08 2017, @12:43PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday March 08 2017, @12:43PM (#476410) Journal

        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.