Wikileaks: When CIA internals become public
According to Wikileaks, the CIA is interested in new, international methods of electronic warfare. Unfortunately, 8,761 files, leading media outlets claim, have already been leaked from the CIA's Cyber Intelligence Center; apparently the first in a series of politically serious releases. The series is called "Year Zero".
The disclosure platform Wikileaks accuses the US intelligence agency CIA of putting sensitive hacking targets at risk. Wikileaks published more than 8,500 documents originating from the CIA on March 7, 2017, allegedly revealing new methods of online warfare. This would be the most far-reaching release of confidential documents. Not only are international critical institutions such as Roche listed, but also previously secret cyber tools allegedly used by the CIA to obtain sensitive information.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency has not confirmed the Wikileaks allegations except for a neutral statement.
Hacker Tools
In terms of its magnitude, the publication goes far beyond the information of the US wiretapping service NSA revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Wikileaks said.
The material published under the title "Vault 7" provides insight into the alleged cyber espionage practices of the foreign intelligence service. In addition, the documents describe vulnerabilities of smartphones, computers and electronic devices and present hacking tools. The intelligence agency could bypass the encryption of messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal by hacking mobile devices and "reading" the messages or audio messages before the encryption takes effect.
In addition, the software of Samsung F-8000 televisions with built-in cameras and microphones is said to have been tapped by the CIA. In the attack with a program called "Weeping Angel", the device gives the appearance of being switched off. Instead, the TV records conversations and sends them to a CIA server.
Extremely problematic in this context: Some intelligence services consider attacks on high-ranking company representatives or companies as a form of active economic promotion.
Black market listens up
"Intelligence agencies have been actively searching for security vulnerabilities in software and hardware for years. It can also be assumed that, in addition to the research of these security vulnerabilities by the intelligence agencies themselves, there is also an active purchase of so-called high-potential exploits on the digital black market," says Tim Berghoff, G DATA Security Evangelist, about the current revelations.
The "end of the line" has not yet been reached, however; the collection of ideas that has surfaced in the documents contains even more frightening prospects that could affect prominent opinion leaders: from reading out access data to recording WLAN passwords.
Regardless of the current Wikileaks revelations, all devices connected to the Internet can provide points of attack that can be exploited not only by intelligence agencies, but also by cyber criminals. - The CIA is keeping quiet about this.
CIA operating in Europe?
According to a Wikileaks press release, Frankfurt is a starting point for the surveillance. The hackers controlled their attacks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from the consulate general there. The information published on March 7, however, comes from the CIA headquarters in Langley (US state of Virginia), near Washington.
"We do not comment on the authenticity or content of alleged intelligence documents," a US spokesman is vaguely quoted as saying in press reports. Officially, no White House spokesperson would like to comment on this so far.
Source not confirmed
Wikileaks does not name the source of its information. The source's wish was to use the publication to spark a public debate on the question of whether the CIA was overstepping its authority. For the time being, the disclosure platform Wikileak has pre-processed the documents and censored names of CIA employees or other data (source sda).
