Wikileaks has announced the start of a new series of leaks on the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The leaks are code-named “Vault 7.”
It is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the CIA, Wikileaks said in a press release.
“The quantity of published pages in “Vault 7” part one (“Year Zero”) already eclipses the total number of pages published over the first three years of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks.”
The first part of the leaks dubbed “Year Zero” comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina.
“Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized “zero day” exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. 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 stated.
“Year Zero” leaks reveals the scope and direction of the US intelligence agency’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.”
Wikileaks said that since 2001, the CIA “has gained political and budgetary preeminence” over the National Security Agency (NSA). The whistleblowing site said that the agency built a “globe-spanning force — its own substantial fleet of hackers.” Moreover, the agency’s hacking division is anot allowed to disclose its operations to the NSA.
“The CIA 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.”
Wikileaks stated citing the source of the leaks that “Once a single cyber ‘weapon’ is ‘loose’ it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.”
Ref.: https://sputniknews.com/world/201703071051342572-wikileaks-cia-series/
WikiLeaks releases ‘entire hacking capacity of the CIA’
RELEASE: Vault 7 Part 1 "Year Zero": Inside the CIA's global hacking force https://t.co/h5wzfrReyy pic.twitter.com/N2lxyHH9jp
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
WikiLeaks on Tuesday released what it said is the full hacking capacity of the CIA in a stunning 8,000-plus page disclosure the anti-secrecy website contends is “the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.”
The 8,761 documents and files — 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., a press release from the website said. The trove had been “circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors,” one of whom “recently” gave the archive to WikiLeaks.
“We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents,” a CIA spokesperson told Fox News.
The collection of purported intelligence tools includes information on CIA-developed malware — bearing names such as “Assassin” and “Medusa” — 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.
WikiLeaks #Vault7 reveals CIA 'zero days' vulnerabilities Windows, CIA air-gap jumping viruses pic.twitter.com/Wy2yiBE83P
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
The site said the CIA additionally failed to disclose security vulnerabilities and bugs to major U.S. software manufacturers, violating an Obama administration commitment made in January 2014. Instead, the agency used the software vulnerabilities — 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 the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a hacking base, and the website provided the methods by which agents obfuscate customs officers to gain entry to Germany, pretending to provide technical consultation.
WikiLeaks' #Vault7 reveals numerous CIA 'zero day' vulnerabilities in Android phones https://t.co/yHg7AtX5gg pic.twitter.com/g6xpPYly9T
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
WikiLeaks' #Vault7 reveals CIA 'zero day' attacks against iPhones, iPads (iOS) https://t.co/UEWWAWWV6K pic.twitter.com/GmpMcmGLPC
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
