LETTER

Wikileaks shows how the CIA spies on you

 

Wikileaks has released thousands of documents the organization alleges to describe tools and tactics the CIA uses to break into smartphones, computers, and even your TV; in Wikileaks' words, "the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency."

The CIA has managed to hack encryption on messaging services like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. The CIA has developed an arsenal of malware that it can use for its hacking purposes on consumer goods, Apple iPhone to the Android and Microsoft Windows operating systems to Samsung TVs -- which can be turned into microphones to listen in on conversations even when they seem like they're turned "off." The CIA has been hoarding, instead of disclosing, "zero day" exploits -- nerdspeak for vulnerabilities and chinks in the armour of software -- from entities like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others, despite assurances from the Obama administration that it wasn't doing that. And this is just from 2013 and 2016.

Per Wikileaks’ press release: "The first full part of the series, '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, Virginia.... This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA." Chunks of the documents, including the code for the hacking tools themselves as well as names and identifying information, have been redacted. The CIA is characteristically mum on the whole thing.  

Rest easy knowing that your TV (laptop and smartphone) could (maybe) get hacked at any moment and you wouldn't know.

Eric Boas
(cyber-space)