“These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp,
Signal, Telegram, Weibo, Confide and Cloackman(sic) by hacking the
smartphones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic
before encryption is applied,”
McClatchy:
The CIA has built up a formidable hacking division that has amassed
ways to control smartphones worldwide and turn on the microphones in
Samsung smart televisions, WikiLeaks said Tuesday.
WikiLeaks released <https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/> what it said were
8,761 documents taken from the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence in
Langley, Virginia, in what it described as “the largest intelligence
publication in history.”
The documents indicate that the CIA has collected “more than a
thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses and other ‘weaponized’
malware” that allow the agency to overcome encryption and seize
control of devices from the biggest tech firms worldwide, including
Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. It said the CIA had purposefully
withheld information from the manufacturers about the vulnerabilities
in their systems, undermining a promise offered by former President
Barack Obama to the high-tech industry.
A CIA spokesman declined to say whether the purported leak was real.
“We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported
intelligence documents,” spokesman Jonathan Liu said.
The WikiLeaks documents, which it said span a period from 2013 to
2016, reveal an arsenal of malware and dozens of “zero day” exploits
against a wide range of products, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s
Android, Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung smart televisions, which
are turned into covert microphones.
Some of the tools would allow the CIA to hack and control popular
smartphones, including the iPhone, giving remote operators access to
the phone’s location and its audio and text communications, and
permitting covert activation of the camera and microphone.
While iPhones compose only 14.5 percent of the global smartphone
market, WikiLeaks said the focus on Apple’s iOS operating system “may
be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political,
diplomatic and business elites.”
The documents indicate that the CIA controlled 24 different
vulnerabilities for Google’s Android operating system, which is used
in 5 out of 6 smartphones worldwide.
“These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp,
Signal, Telegram, Weibo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the
smartphones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic
before encryption is applied,” WikiLeaks said.
The anti-secrecy organization said it had obtained the documents from
someone associated with the 5,000 hackers in the Center for Cyber
Intelligence who objected to its lack of accountability and
duplication of efforts with the National Security Agency, a rival
intelligence arm.
“The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security,
creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyber weapons,”
WikiLeaks said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article136906453.html
