WikiLeaks is, for now, withholding details on the specific hacks used \u201cuntil a consensus emerges\u201d on the nature of the CIA\u2019s program<\/b>
Documents released by WikiLeaks allege a CIA surveillance program that targets everyday gadgets ranging from smart TVs to smartphones to cars. Such snooping, WikiLeaks said, could turn some of these devices into recorders of everyday conversations – and could also circumvent data-scrambling encryption on communications apps such as Facebook\u2019s WhatsApp.
Codenamed \u201cVault 7,\u201d the disclosures reveal cyberespionage tools that can take over internet connected, or \u201csmart\u201d tvs and record audio, CBS News\u2019 Jeff Pegues reports. The documents also cite the ability to hack iPhone or Google Android smartphones.
Codenamed \u201cVault 7,\u201d the disclosures reveal cyberespionage tools that can take over internet connected, or \u201csmart\u201d tvs and record audio. The documents also cite the ability to hack iphone or google android smart phones.
Those hacks allow the CIA to then monitor the communications of terrorist groups like ISIS, which have been using encrypted apps to communicate.
Critics have wondered why apps like Whatsapp or Telegram haven\u2019t been disabled. But the documents suggest analysts have the ability to exploit them.
WikiLeaks is, for now, withholding details on the specific hacks used \u201cuntil a consensus emerges\u201d on the nature of the CIA\u2019s program and how the methods should be \u201canalyzed, disarmed and published.\u201d But WikiLeaks – a nonprofit that routinely publishes confidential documents, frequently from government sources – claims that the data and documents it obtained reveal a broad program to bypass security measures on everyday products.
Tuesday, WikiLeaks published thousands of documents that they say reveal the scope of the CIA’s global hacking program. Mike Baker, a former CIA…
If true, the disclosure could spark new privacy tensions between the government and the technology industry. Relations have been fraught since 2013, when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden disclosed secret NSA surveillance of phone and digital communications.
Just last year, the two sides feuded over the FBI\u2019s calls for Apple to rewrite its operating system so that agents could break into the locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers. The FBI ultimately broke into the phone with the help of an outside party; the agency has neither disclosed the party nor the nature of the vulnerability, preventing Apple from fixing it.
According to WikiLeaks, much of the CIA program centered on dozens of vulnerabilities it discovered but didn\u2019t disclose to the gadget makers. Common practice calls for government agencies to disclose such flaws to companies privately, so that they could fix them.
Instead, WikiLeaks claims, the CIA held on to the knowledge in order to conduct a variety of attacks. As a result, tech companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft haven\u2019t been able to make the necessary fixes.
\u201cSerious vulnerabilities not disclosed to the manufacturers places huge swathes of the population and critical infrastructure at risk to foreign intelligence or cyber criminals who independently discover or hear rumors of the vulnerability,\u201d WikiLeaks wrote in a press release. \u201cIf the CIA can discover such vulnerabilities so can others.\u201d
Not everyone is worried, though.
Alan Paller, director of research for the cybersecurity training outfit SANS Institute, said the case boils down to \u201cspies who use their tools to do what they are paid to do.\u201d He said criminals already have similar tools – and he\u2019s more worried about that.
Rich Mogull, CEO of the security research firm Securosis, said that agencies gathering intelligence on other organizations and governments need, by definition, technical exploits that aren\u2019t public.
If they\u2019re authentic, the leaked CIA documents frame a stark reality: It may be that no digital conversation, photo or other slice of life can be shielded from spies and other intruders prying into smartphones, personal computers, tablets or just about device connected to the internet.
\u201cIt\u2019s getting to the point where anything you say, write or electronically transmit on a phone, you have to assume that it is going to be compromised in some way,\u201d said Robert Cattanach, a former U. S. Department of Justice attorney who now specializes in cybersecurity and privacy for the law firm Dorsey & Whitney.
WikiLeaks claims the hacks allowed the CIA to collect audio and other messages from data-scrambling communication apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and Confide by intercepting data before it is encrypted or after it\u2019s decoded. The CIA didn\u2019t appear to compromise the apps themselves, but rather the phone\u2019s underlying operating system.
WikiLeaks says the CIA had separate teams looking for vulnerabilities in iPhones and Android phones and also targeted tablets such as iPads. According to WikiLeaks, the vulnerabilities were discovered by the CIA itself or obtained from other government agencies and cyberweapon contractors.
A visitor checks out a Samsung Smart TV television at the Samsung hall at the IFA 2011 consumer electonics and appliances trade fair on the first day of the fair\u2019s official opening on September 2, 2011 in Berlin, Germany.
WikiLeaks also claims that the CIA worked with U. K. intelligence officials to turn microphones in Samsung smart TVs into listening devices. The microphones are normally there for viewers to make voice commands, such as requests for movie recommendations. If the TV is off, there\u2019s no listening being done.
But WikiLeaks claims that a CIA hack makes the target TV appear to be off when it\u2019s actually on – and listening. WikiLeaks says the audio goes to a covert CIA server rather than a party authorized by Samsung. In such cases, audio isn\u2019t limited to TV commands but could include everyday conversations.
Other tools in the CIA\u2019s arsenal target PCs running Microsoft\u2019s Windows system, according to WikiLeaks, which says many of the attacks are in the form of viruses designed to spread through CDs and USB drives.
WikiLeaks also says the CIA was also targeting control systems used by cars and trucks. Although WikiLeaks didn\u2019t have details on how that might be used, it said the capability might allow the CIA to \u201cengage in nearly undetectable assassinations.\u201d
Microsoft said it was aware of the reports and was looking into them. Apple, Google and Samsung didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement, General Motors said it would be premature to comment on the documents, including its authenticity. But GM added that it knew of no injuries or death resulting from the hacking of a vehicle.<\/p>\n

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