14 DAY TRIAL // WikiLeaks has finally made light on the Vault 7 revelations it promised weeks ago - the CIA's entire hacking capacity.
The batch WikiLeaks is releasing is the most comprehensive collection of US spying files ever made public, claims Julian Assange. In total, there are 8,761 documents accounting for the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. This is just the first of a series of "Vault 7" leaks, WikiLeaks promises.
So what's in the files? WikiLeaks claims that CIA has software that could allow them to take control of the most popular electronics used today - iPhones, Android devices, PCs, smart TVs.
"'Year Zero' introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of 'zero day' weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones," the organization writes in the release.
A loose cannon
WikiLeaks claims that the CIA recently lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized zero day exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. It seems that the entire collection, amounting to several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive has been circulating between US government hackers and contractors, one of whom took a step further and handed over the trove to WikiLeaks.
The source, it seems, wants to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.
Whether the best way to do this was by sharing the files with WikiLeaks remains to be seen. While it's really no surprise that the CIA has such extensive powers, it's rather shocking to see it all on paper.
We'll be adding more stories as we go through the contents of Vault 7.
- The CIA can bypass WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram encryption - The CIA can spy on you via your smart TV, iPhone, Android device