FBI, CIA Will Open Criminal Probe on Wikileaks Dump
Wikileaks insists it did not publish the actual codes.
Officials within the CIA and FBI will open an investigation to find out how Wikileaks almost 9,000 pages that details the CIA’s hacking operations:
The investigation is looking into how the documents came into WikiLeaks’ possession and whether they might have been leaked by an employee or contractor. The CIA is also trying to determine if there are other unpublished documents WikiLeaks may have.
The documents published so far are largely genuine, officials said, though they are not yet certain if all of them are and whether some of the documents may have been altered.
Wikileaks suggested it received the documents from someone within the agency:
WikiLeaks said the CIA recently “lost control” of the majority of its hacking arsenal. “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 site said in a statement. “The archive appears to have been circulating among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.”
The documents included details about the UMBRAGE group, which has malware from other countries that the CIA can use and disguise its own fingerprints.
The CIA malware allows the hackers to attack iPhones, Androids, and smart TVs. The Embedded Devices Branch (EDB) developed “Weeping Angel” specifically for the smart TVs by “transforming them into covert microphones.” The malware will turn the TV into “Fake-Off” mode so the agents can keep recording the person.
The government has concerns that Wikileaks published legit computer code within these documents, which could lead to hackers taking the “code and cause havoc overseas.”
However, Wikileaks dismissed this claim when it released the documents:
WikiLeaks said in its statement that it was not publishing such information as computer source code that could be used to replicate the tools it claims to have exposed. But the group left open the possibility of publishing those crucial details if “a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA’s program and how such ‘weapons’ should [sic] analyzed, disarmed and published.”
Samsung announced the company will also investigate the allegations that the CIA uses its smart TVs as a way to spy on people:
“Protecting consumers’ privacy and the security of our devices is a top priority at Samsung,” the company said in a statement.
“We are aware of the report in question and are urgently looking into the matter.”
In 2015, the company released a warning about its smart TVs voice recognition feature:
“Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition,” Samsung posted in its SmartTV privacy policy.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Why do I get the nagging feeling that this was an inside job done by the deep state?
I don’t think it was, because the people who are most discredited by this are the deep-staters themselves. And conversely, their enemies are not damaged by this much at all.
For example, take Trump – he has been attacking the leakers and the unauthorized surveillance done by members of the American security elites; they are the ones who are being made to look like idiots and liars by these leaks. On the other hand, Trump can simply say “I wasn’t in power when any of this happened, none of this can be blamed on me” and he can walk away from it.
I think a fascinating possibility (although no more than that) is that the Russians finally got sick of the way they were being used a daily punching bag in Washington, and decided to drop a whole bunch of dirt on the CIA through Wikileaks, just to get even.
Factions.
According to Wikileaks, it was the Deep State that turned all this loose on us. Wikileaks just let us know they have circulated this garbage to every noob, worldwide.
“FBI, CIA Will Open Criminal Probe on Wikileaks Dump”
We will know the results in a future dump.
I would rather seen them opening a criminal investigation into who is leaking sensitive information to the press.
Is anybody investigating the crimes the CIA committed by surveilling American citizens without a warrant?
Why no, it’s more important to kill the messenger!
If you want to see the automobile cyber attack in action read this about Michael Hastings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)
This was in 2013 and Michael Hastings was about to reveal some powerful stuff against obama. Now that cyber attacks on a car look easy from the leaks this takes on new meaning. Throw in the ability to leave another hacker’s fingerprint and the Russian story looks about as bad as the “Accident” does.
You know, until we see people arrested, indicted, tried and convicted , this all feels meaningless to me. Like nothing will change. Hopeless is more like it.