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WikiLeaks publishes 'entire hacking capacity of the CIA'


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WikiLeaks publishes 'entire hacking capacity of the CIA'

 

WikiLeaks has published what it claims is the largest ever batch of confidential documents on the CIA, revealing the breadth of the agency’s ability to hack smartphones and popular social media messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

A total of 8,761 documents have been published as part of ‘Year Zero’, the first in a series of leaks on the agency that the whistleblower organization has dubbed ‘Vault 7.’

In a statement WikiLeaks said ‘Year Zero’ revealed details of the CIA’s “global covert hacking program,” including “weaponized exploits” used against company products including “Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.”

According to the cache of documents released, the CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) has developed multiple tools and systems to hack popular smart phones and remotely order them to send both location data as well as audio and text communications.

The phones’ cameras and microphones can also be remotely activated at will.

Such tools and techniques allow the CIA to hack social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman before encryption can be applied, WikiLeaks claims in the statement on their website.

The time period covered in the latest leak is 2013 to 2016, according to the CIA timestamps on the documents themselves.

The source of the information told WikiLeaks in a statement that they wish to initiate a public debate about the “security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”

Policy questions that should be debated in public include “whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency,” WikiLeaks claims the source said.

Commenting on the leak, WikiLeaks co-editor Julian Assange said the cache showed the “extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber 'weapons.”

“The significance of ‘Year Zero’ goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective," he said.

The FAQ section of the release yields some key details which highlight the true extent of the leak: firstly, the information was “obtained recently and covers through 2016”.

Secondly, WikiLeaks has asserted that it has not mined the entire leak and has only verified it, asking that journalists and activists do the leg work.

In WikiLeaks’ analysis of ‘Year Zero’ it detailed ‘Weeping Angel’, a surveillance technique which infiltrates smart TV’s, transforming them into microphones.

An attack against Samsung TV’s used ‘Weeping Angel’ in cooperation with MI5, placing them into a ‘Fake-Off’ mode, recording conversations even when the device appears to be off.

In the released batch “Things you might do” with ‘Weeping Angel’ is detailed in a document. “Investigate any listening ports & their respective services” is listed, along with “extract browser credentials or history.”

The release came after a planned press conference suffered a cyberattack, according to the whistleblowing organization. WikiLeaks has since rescheduled its press conference.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/379724-wikileaks-assange-cia-hacking/

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Why don't they leak more interesting things? I'm tired of this "they are spying you". I want a juicy leak with that the politicians really say, plans, etc. And i don't want it in 2027, about things that happened in 2003. I want it NOW. 

 

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4 minutes ago, karbatal said:

Why don't they leak more interesting things? I'm tired of this "they are spying you". I want a juicy leak with that the politicians really say, plans, etc. And i don't want it in 2027, about things that happened in 2003. I want it NOW. 

 

I'm still waiting for the leak of Trump's sextape golden shower with russian prostitutes! :lol:

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Apple, Samsung, Microsoft: WikiLeaks blows lid on scale of CIA’s hacking arsenal

 

The major takeaway from the latest WikiLeaks dump centers around the terrifying, ‘all-seeing-eye’ surveillance project codenamed ‘Weeping Angel.’ The CIA appears to have taken espionage to a whole new level if WikiLeaks’ initial analysis is accurate.

According to the preliminary release, the CIA has the capability to hack, record and even control everyday technology used by billions of people around the world.

These include smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and even vehicles with remote control navigation systems.

On these devices themselves, the CIA can allegedly hack into some of the world’s most heavily encrypted social media and communications platforms such as WhatsApp, Weibo, Confide, Signal and Telegram before any encryption can even be applied.

For example, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption means that only the direct participants in a conversation can read messages; not even WhatsApp is capable of reading them.

The CIA, however, was able to hack into individual private WhatsApp messages before encryption could even be applied.

“Your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read your message,” the company writes on their website.

To understand the sheer scale of the leak and of the CIA’s high tech surveillance operations, the hierarchy of divisions within the agency’s cyber division can be looked at below.

According to WikiLeaks, the manufacturing division for the Agency’s hacking tools, or ‘zero days’ as they are dubbed in the leaks, is the EDG (Engineering Development Group), which is under the umbrella of the agency’s CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence).

 

SMARTPHONE DEVICES

The CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed a variety of tools and techniques to remotely hack and control the world’s most popular smartphones and tablets.

Once hacked, phones can be used to transmit their “geolocation, audio and text communications” directly to the CIA without the user’s knowledge. In addition, the CIA can remotely activate the phone’s microphone and camera.

 

APPLE DEVICES

Despite Apple holding a minority share in the global smartphone market in 2016, the CIA’s Mobile Development Branch has a specific division dedicated to the hacking of Apple devices which run the iOS operating system from smartphones and tablets.

WikiLeaks also alleges that the CIA not only developed but collaborated on or purchased a variety of hacking tools or ‘zero days’ from intelligence agencies and contractors around the world such as GCHQ, NSA, FBI or Baitshop.

 

SAMSUNG

The EDG has produced a ‘zero day’ capable of hacking Samsung smart TVs, switching it into a fake ‘off mode’ where the device appears to remain on standby while actually recording audio and transmitting it to nearby secured CIA servers.

For context, Samsung was the top-selling television brand in the world for the last decade with a global market share of 21 percent as of 2015. WikiLeaks did not specify in the initial release whether video recordings were also a part of this particular ‘zero day.’

 

VEHICLE CONTROL

As far back as 2014, WikiLeaks alleges that the CIA was exploring the possibility of infecting control systems in modern cars and trucks. While the exact goal of such control has yet to be established, WikiLeaks suggests that such hacks could be used for almost undetectable assassinations. :ohgoodgrief:

 

ANDROID DEVICES (Samsung, HTC, Sony)

The majority of the world’s smartphones (approximately 85 percent) run on the Android operating system, with roughly 1.15 billion Android devices sold last year, according to the WikiLeaks statement. Naturally, the CIA devoted an entire subdivision to hacking Android devices, with 24 individual weaponized ‘zero days’ targeting Android devices.

 

MICROSOFT

The CIA’s cyber division has developed numerous local and remote ‘zero days’ to hack and control Microsoft Windows users. 

These ‘zero days’ include, but are not limited to: air gap jumping viruses such as ‘Hammer Drill’ that are capable of infecting computers or phones that have never been connected to the internet; hacking tools that focus on removable devices such as USB drives; systems for hiding data, be it in covert disk areas or in images; particular ‘zero days’ that are manufactured to self-perpetuate and hide themselves from detection on an ongoing basis.

Before any tech experts gloat, WikiLeaks also alleges that the CIA has developed advanced, multi-platform malware attack and control systems that cover Windows and Mac OS X but also mixed source platforms like Solaris and open source platforms like Linux. Wikileaks names these specific ‘zero days’ as the EDB's ‘HIVE,’ ‘Cutthroat’ and ‘Swindle’ tools.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/379757-your-whole-life-is-hacked/

 

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Has any of you had the sensation before, that you speak about a certain topic and then it is suddenly around you? It has happened to me twice about changing telephone companies. The very same afternoon I was called by that company. 

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1 minute ago, karbatal said:

Has any of you had the sensation before, that you speak about a certain topic and then it is suddenly around you? It has happened to me twice about changing telephone companies. The very same afternoon I was called by that company. 

 

Not yet. And i hope that will never happen. I would be seriously disturbed if something like that happens to me.

I'm not a journalist though, maybe i'm not a crucial target for those things.

This is beyond creepy.

 

How exactly that happened to you?

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WikiLeaks says CIA docs reveal US consulate in Frankfurt as hacking base

 

The American consulate in Frankfurt functions as a covert base for CIA hacking operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks said, revealing the latest batch of their documents.

According to the leaked documents, the US consulate, located on Giessener Strasse opposite the Frankfurt cemetery, is the home of the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe, or CCIE, which carries out hacking operations across the continent as well as the Middle East and Africa.

The documents reveal instructions for incoming hackers, containing not only mundane travel tips (“Flying Lufthansa: Booze is free so enjoy (within reason)!”) and details of local amenities (“Gas stations are not recommended for fine dining”) but also the official cover story should the agents be stopped by German customs, which is “supporting technical consultations at the Consulate.” 

In addition to the cover story, the documents seem to show that CIA hackers work under the cover of the State Department and are issued with diplomatic “black” passports.

On top of this, the leaked documents reveal some of the CIA’s hacking techniques, which are able to penetrate such high-security systems as police databases that are not directly connected to the Internet.

This includes malware physically installed on computer systems by the agents using a USB. The “Fine Dining” tool provides 24 decoy programs, make it look like agent is running virus scan, watching videos, playing games and so on.

These latest revelations stem from WikiLeaks’ largest-ever disclosure from the agency, a total of 8,761 documents released on Wednesday as part of “Year Zero,” the first part in a series of leaks on the agency that the whistleblower organization has dubbed “Vault 7.”

The documents are said to originate from the internal network at Cyber Intelligence Center, located in CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

This is not the first time that WikiLeaks has revealed the extent of American intelligence agencies’ activities in Germany. In 2015, it published three intercepts of conversations held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel recorded by the NSA, which had been bugging her phones for years.

But by the end of 2016, WikiLeaks notes in its press release that the CIA’s hacking division had built up its capabilities to such an extent that it 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.”

 

https://www.rt.com/news/379771-wikileaks-frankfurt-hacking-cia/

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Snowden on WikiLeaks Year Zero: Evidence US govt pays to keep 'software unsafe'

 

Edward Snowden has tweeted his response to WikiLeaks’ massive dump of confidential documents surrounding CIA hacking tools, describing it as “genuinely a big deal.”

Snowden, who has lived in exile since he blew the lid off the scale of National Security Agency surveillance in 2013, has been pouring through the cache of more than 8,000 documents, saying that they “show iOS/Android are what got hacked – a much bigger problem.”

The former NSA employee is also convinced that the revelations exposed in this latest massive WikiLeaks dump are genuine, tweeting that only a cleared insider could know the names of programs and offices used by the agency.  

The whistleblower also claims that this is the first public evidence that the United States government is secretly paying to keep US software unsecured.  

 

https://www.rt.com/viral/379769-snowden-responds-wikileaks-dump/

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20 minutes ago, Nessie said:

WikiLeaks says CIA docs reveal US consulate in Frankfurt as hacking base

 

The American consulate in Frankfurt functions as a covert base for CIA hacking operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks said, revealing the latest batch of their documents.

According to the leaked documents, the US consulate, located on Giessener Strasse opposite the Frankfurt cemetery, is the home of the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe, or CCIE, which carries out hacking operations across the continent as well as the Middle East and Africa.

The documents reveal instructions for incoming hackers, containing not only mundane travel tips (“Flying Lufthansa: Booze is free so enjoy (within reason)!”) and details of local amenities (“Gas stations are not recommended for fine dining”) but also the official cover story should the agents be stopped by German customs, which is “supporting technical consultations at the Consulate.” 

In addition to the cover story, the documents seem to show that CIA hackers work under the cover of the State Department and are issued with diplomatic “black” passports.

On top of this, the leaked documents reveal some of the CIA’s hacking techniques, which are able to penetrate such high-security systems as police databases that are not directly connected to the Internet.

This includes malware physically installed on computer systems by the agents using a USB. The “Fine Dining” tool provides 24 decoy programs, make it look like agent is running virus scan, watching videos, playing games and so on.

These latest revelations stem from WikiLeaks’ largest-ever disclosure from the agency, a total of 8,761 documents released on Wednesday as part of “Year Zero,” the first part in a series of leaks on the agency that the whistleblower organization has dubbed “Vault 7.”

The documents are said to originate from the internal network at Cyber Intelligence Center, located in CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

This is not the first time that WikiLeaks has revealed the extent of American intelligence agencies’ activities in Germany. In 2015, it published three intercepts of conversations held by German Chancellor Angela Merkel recorded by the NSA, which had been bugging her phones for years.

But by the end of 2016, WikiLeaks notes in its press release that the CIA’s hacking division had built up its capabilities to such an extent that it 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.”

 

https://www.rt.com/news/379771-wikileaks-frankfurt-hacking-cia/

Interesting. I met a guy from Washington a few years ago who works for the Government and who travels to Frankfurt every few months for business. He is a trainer and teaches classes about their 'technical equipments'. We have become friends and I'm seeing him next month again. Should I ask him if he works for the CIA? lol 

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14 minutes ago, DagIN said:

Interesting. I met a guy from Washington a few years ago who works for the Government and who travels to Frankfurt every few months for business. He is a trainer and teaches classes about their 'technical equipments'. We have become friends and I'm seeing him next month again. Should I ask him if he works for the CIA? lol

 

Absolutely! :lol:

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What else is new? :lol:

Are people surprised? This has been going on for decades. The Jesuit trained directors of the CIA are very good at what they do

And so are Georgetown University elites in DC, massive Jesuit institution that has produced several prominent figures in American politics, last but not least a number of presidents

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13 hours ago, Nessie said:

 

Not yet. And i hope that will never happen. I would be seriously disturbed if something like that happens to me.

I'm not a journalist though, maybe i'm not a crucial target for those things.

This is beyond creepy.

 

How exactly that happened to you?

Oh I'm a journalist but believe me,  I have zero interest to anybody.  

It's a simple conversation at home.  We had problems with our WiFi and I gave some proposal and bam,  twice it happened.  The company I named called to give an offer that very afternoon.  

A friend of mine who is a Translator  (he's American living in Madrid and studies Arabic)  told me a couple of weeks ago it happened to him too.  

 

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15 hours ago, karbatal said:

Why don't they leak more interesting things? I'm tired of this "they are spying you". I want a juicy leak with that the politicians really say, plans, etc. And i don't want it in 2027, about things that happened in 2003. I want it NOW. 

 

Agreed! I mean, the odds me and my neighbors have some secret double life are slim to none. Besides porn and some shit I often talk over the phone, what else is there to be found? I want some juicy stuff! Hacked private conversations among politicians, for example. Spy on the Bilderberg meetigs for fucks sake!

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Just now, Icykiller said:

Agreed! I mean, the odds me and my neighbors have some secret double life are slim to none. Besides porn and some shit I often talk over the phone, what else is there to be found? I want some juicy stuff! Hacked private conversations among politicians, for example. Spy on the Bilderberg meetigs for fucks sake!

Yeah.  

I doubt any conversation from regular people is interesting. And I doubt it's sold to telephone companies to give offers :lol:

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21 hours ago, karbatal said:

Why don't they leak more interesting things? I'm tired of this "they are spying you". I want a juicy leak with that the politicians really say, plans, etc. And i don't want it in 2027, about things that happened in 2003. I want it NOW. 

 

They don't have anything. That's why there is no interesting leak. 

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22 hours ago, karbatal said:

Has any of you had the sensation before, that you speak about a certain topic and then it is suddenly around you? It has happened to me twice about changing telephone companies. The very same afternoon I was called by that company. 

I was talking to friends about a park near us and an hour later the park was listed as trending on my FB. That stood out to me because there is no reason for it to trend, other times when things like that happen I just think it's coincidence.

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I can't with this sad clown   :rotfl:

These hacks have made the US and its friends less safe? How comes he doesn't discuss Western funding of terrorism to reach geopolitical goals is what makes citizens all over the world less safe? Meanwhile the whole CIA castle is an unaccountable sovranational entity that can do as they please? They must think people are stupid or something. Still blaming Russia for the Clintons email that came from WITHIN Clinton's camp or at the very least from the Democratic Party's camp. This guy probably didn't get the Merkel memo that it is not acceptable to spy and record allies behind their backs.

 

Former CIA boss Michael Hayden has said the supposed leak of highly sensitive CIA data by Wikileaks is "incredibly damaging" and has put lives at risk. The website claims the papers give details of a wide range of hacking methods used by the American spy agency, via mobile phones and other gadgets. The CIA has refused to comment.
 

 

 

 

 

What makes the entire world less safe is the systematic abuse of power and the false justifications that allow the US military industrial complex to act as the undisturbed  bully of the world while deceiving its very own citizens in the process. The gradual  implementation of this is offensive and revolting instead:

 

1984_george_orwell.jpg

 

orwell-1984-slogan.png

 

714b8-+K3EL.jpg

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