Wikileaks published a new series of documents labeled “Vault 7,” and are from the inside of the CIA’s “Global Hacking Force.” The first installment, called “Year Zero” contains more pages of information than the first three years of Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks. The big story today is that they appear to have worked with companies to leave holes in the security of devices so that they can get in. Literally, they paid tech companies to make products insecure.
Announcing the data leaks
Within minutes of Wikileaks announcement, Julian Assange’s live streaming entities, Periscope and Facebook were attacked. They immediately rescheduled the press conference and initiated contingency plans. They sent out a passphrase for dumping the CIA data: “SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds”
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NOTICE: As Mr. Assange's Perscipe+Facebook video stream links are under attack his video press conference will be rescheduled.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
RELEASE: CIA Vault 7 Year Zero decryption passphrase:
SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
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
The dump includes evidence that the US Government was PAYING companies to keep their technology insecure. The incredible part of this is that the CIA amassed MAJOR cyber weapons and then lost control of them.
How the CIA built a vast cyberweapons arsenal–and then lost control of it https://t.co/K7wFTdlC82 #Vault7 pic.twitter.com/06BKihmHwn
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
If you're writing about the CIA/@Wikileaks story, here's the big deal: first public evidence USG secretly paying to keep US software unsafe. pic.twitter.com/kYi0NC2mOp
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017
The CIA reports show the USG developing vulnerabilities in US products, then intentionally keeping the holes open. Reckless beyond words.
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017
The Wikileaks Statement on Vault 7 reads in part:
“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.
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor stated that “There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber ‘weapons’. Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such ‘weapons’, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. But the significance of “Year Zero” goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.”
Wikileaks has carefully reviewed the “Year Zero” disclosure and published substantive CIA documentation while avoiding the distribution of ‘armed’ cyberweapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA’s program and how such ‘weapons’ should analyzed, disarmed and published.
Wikileaks has also decided to redact and anonymise some identifying information in “Year Zero” for in depth analysis. These redactions include ten of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States.”
Some of the disclosures include how to skip activation codes on things like Windows, and the vulnerabilities in Android, and Chrome. How the CIA can turn on your phone or Smart TV and listen to every word you say. They blew the lid off the US Embassy in Frankfurt, Germany, outing it as a hacking base:
U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a covert CIA hacker base https://t.co/K7wFTdlC82 pic.twitter.com/oqjtcVb56E
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
The CIA kept a stash of vulnerabilities:
CIA illicitly hoarded 'zero day' attacks, putting at risk industry, government and even Trump's Twitter account https://t.co/K7wFTdlC82 pic.twitter.com/miJOPvl7MD
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
#CIA hid ability to #hack smart phones and TVs worldwide from makers, despite #Obama pledge to reveal https://t.co/K7wFTdlC82 #Vault7
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
Evidence mounts showing CIA & FBI knew about catastrophic weaknesses in the most-used smartphones in America, but kept them open — to spy. https://t.co/mDyVred3H8
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017
Wikileaks states that the source of the CIA data is asking to initiate a public debate about the “security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.” The extent of the CIA’s infestation of products that Americans assume are safe is mindblowing.
“Year Zero” is only the first of the CIA document releases.
H/T Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children
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