WikiLeaks Dump Shows CIA Using Cell Phones And Smart TVs To Listen And WATCH "Everyday Americans"

[crazyladybutterfly]

[Egyptian]

[crazyladybutterfly]

i wouldnt say the usa doesnt have a democracy but the countries where "democracy" is "exported" (by america) often do not .

[crazyladybutterfly]

The release was described as a huge loss to the CIA by security experts and former U.S. intelligence officials. “It looks like really the backbone of their network exploitation kit,” said a former hacker who worked for the National Security Agency and, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.

The breach could undermine the CIA’s ability to carry out key parts of its mission, from targeting the Islamic State and other terrorist networks to penetrating the computer defenses of sophisticated cyber-adversaries including Russia, China and Iran, former officials and tech specialists said.

“Any exposure of these tools is going to cause grave if not irreparable damage to the ability of our intelligence agencies to conduct our mission,” a former senior U.S. intelligence official said.

If legitimate, the release represents the latest major breach of sensitive U.S. government data to be put on global display in humiliating fashion by WikiLeaks, which came to prominence in 2010 with the exposure of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables and military files. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has engaged in an escalating feud with the United States while taking refuge at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London from Swedish sexual assault allegations.

WikiLeaks’ latest assault on U.S. secrets may pose an early, potentially awkward security issue for President Trump, who has repeatedly praised WikiLeaks and disparaged the CIA.

WikiLeaks indicated that it obtained the files from a current or former CIA contractor, saying that “the archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.”

WikiLeaks said the trove comprised tools — including malware, viruses, trojans and weaponized “zero day” exploits — developed by a CIA entity known as the Engineering Development Group, part of a sprawling cyber-directorate created in recent years as the agency shifted resources and attention to online espionage.

WikiLeaks labeled the trove “Vault 7” and said that it contains several hundred million lines of code, many of which are designed to exploit vulnerabilities in everyday consumer devices.

In a statement, WikiLeaks said the files enable the agency to bypass popular encryption-enabled applications — including WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram — used by millions of people to safeguard their communications.

But experts said that rather than defeating the encryption of those applications, the CIA’s methods rely on exploiting vulnerabilities in the devices on which they are installed, a method referred to as “hacking the endpoint.”


One of the most intriguing tools described in the files, called “Weeping Angel,” can apparently be used to put certain television sets into a fake “off” mode while activating a microphone that enables the CIA to capture any conversations in the surrounding space.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...adlines&wpmm=1

[crazyladybutterfly]

After loving WikiLeaks as a candidate, Trump decides he doesn’t like leaks as president


But now that he is in the White House, Trump is having to confront the threat of hacking, along with leaks from within his own administration — and, suddenly, he is not a fan. Trump and his aides have angrily railed against leakers, threatening to find and prosecute them and urging congressional allies to investigate, while being uncharacteristically quiet when it comes to WikiLeaks.

The latest sign of how the tables have turned came Tuesday when WikiLeaks announced that it had obtained a vast portion of the CIA’s closely guarded cyberweapons and began posting files online. The breach could cause massive fallout among U.S. allies and poses a serious challenge for Trump, who has been feuding with the intelligence community over probes into alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment on the latest WikiLeaks dump during a briefing with reporters Tuesday, saying it “has not been fully evaluated.” But moments later, Spicer did decry leaks generally, saying they “are threatening our national security.”

The president has said that the emails released by WikiLeaks during the campaign do not compare to the information now being leaked, some of which he says is classified.

“In one case, you’re talking about highly classified information. In the other case, you’re talking about John Podesta saying bad things about the boss,” Trump said at a news conference last month, referring to Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman whose private email account was hacked.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...adlines&wpmm=1

[Also]

Complete lack of respect for citizens from the intelligence agencies. I don' know how this doesn't cause havoc.