Wikileaks released what it is said to be the full hacking capacity of the CIA in an over 8,000 page disclosure on Tuesday.
According to FOX News, the documents and files that were released as “Vault 7 Part 1” and titled “Year Zero” were obtained from an “isolated, high-security network” at the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Va., according to a press release from the website.
“We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents,” a CIA spokesperson told FOX News.
The collection of intelligence reveals tools such as CIA-developed malware, named things such as “Assassin” and “Medusa”, which are intended to target iPhones, Android phones, smart TVs, and Microsoft, Mac, and Linux operating systems among others. An entire unit in the CIA is devoted to inventing programs to hack data from Apple products, according to WikiLeaks.
Some remote hacking programs can allegedly turn numerous electronic devices into recording and transmitting stations in order to spy on their targets. The information would be sent back to secret CIA servers. Reportedly, one document appeared to show that the CIA was trying to “infect” vehicle control systems in cars and trucks.
It was hinted in Wikileaks that these revealed capabilities may be for more than just spying.
“It would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations,” the release stated.
The site continued to say that the CIA additionally failed to disclose security flaws and bugs to major U.S. software manufacturers, violating an Obama administration commitment that was made in January 2014. Instead, the agency used the software flaws, which could also be exploited by rival agencies, nations and groups, for its own ends, WikiLeaks said.
“As an example, specific CIA malware revealed in ‘Year Zero’ is able to penetrate, infest and control both the Android phone and iPhone software that runs or has run presidential Twitter accounts,” the WikiLeaks release stated.
WikiLeaks also revealed that the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is used as a hacking base, and the website provided the methods by which agents get around customs officers to gain entry to Germany, by pretending to provide technical consultation.
Some of the released files include redacted information, such as tens “of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States.”
WikiLeaks said its source released the files because they believed questions surrounding the CIA’s reach “urgently need to be debated in public,” echoing the motives of many previous leakers.
