WikiLeaks says it has secret CIA hacking tools

[webfact]

WikiLeaks says it has secret CIA hacking tools

By Dustin Volz and Warren Strobel

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO - The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building is pictured in Langley, Virginia, U.S. on August 14, 2008. REUTERS/Larry Downing/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks on Tuesday said it had obtained a secret trove of hacking tools used by the CIA to break into or circumvent the security of phones, communication apps and other devices, and published confidential documents describing those programs.

 

Among the most noteworthy WikiLeaks claims are that the Central Intelligence Agency, in partnership with other U.S. and foreign agencies, has been able to bypass the encryption on popular messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal, by hacking phones that use Google Inc's Android platform to collect audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.

 

Reuters could not immediately verify the contents of the published documents, but several contractors and private cyber security experts said the materials, dated between 2013 and 2016, appeared to be legitimate.

 

The information in what WikiLeaks said were 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments appears to represent the latest in a string of breaches in recent years of classified material from U.S. intelligence agencies.

 

Experts differed over how much the disclosures will damage U.S. cyber espionage. Many said that, while harmful, they do not compare to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations in 2013 of intrusive NSA surveillance.

 

Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance, an Irvine, California, cyber security firm, said that one of the most significant disclosures shows how CIA hackers cover their tracks by leaving trails suggesting they are from Russia, China and Iran rather than the United States.

 

Other revelations show how the CIA took advantage of vulnerabilities that are known, if not widely publicized.

 

In one case, the documents say, U.S. and British personnel, under a program known as Weeping Angel, developed ways to take over a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room.

 

"You thought your technology was safe. It's never been safe," said James Lewis, cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

 

The CIA and White House declined comment. "We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents," CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu said in a statement.

 

Google declined to comment on the reported hacking of its Android platform, but said it was investigating the matter.

 

Snowden on Twitter said the files amount to the first public evidence that the U.S. government secretly buys software to exploit technology, referring to a table published by WikiLeaks that appeared to list various Apple iOS flaws purchased by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

 

An Apple Inc spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

The documents refer to means for accessing phones directly in order to catch messages before they are protected by end-to-end encryption tools like Signal.

 

Signal inventor Moxie Marlinspike said he took that as "confirmation that what we’re doing is working." Signal and the like are "pushing intelligence agencies from a world of undetectable mass surveillance to a world where they have to use expensive, high-risk, extremely targeted attacks."

 

CIA CYBER PROGRAMS

 

The CIA in recent years underwent a restructuring to focus more on cyber warfare to keep pace with the increasing digital sophistication of foreign adversaries. The spy agency is prohibited by law from collecting intelligence that details domestic activities of Americans and is generally restricted in how it may gather any U.S. data for counterintelligence purposes.

 

The documents published Tuesday appeared to supply specific details to what has been long-known in the abstract: U.S. intelligence agencies, like their allies and adversaries, are constantly working to discover and exploit flaws in any manner of technology products.

 

Unlike the Snowden leaks, which revealed the NSA was secretly collecting details of telephone calls by ordinary Americans, the new WikiLeaks material did not appear to contain material that would fundamentally change what is publicly known about cyber espionage.

 

WikiLeaks, led by Julian Assange, said its publication of the documents on the hacking tools was the first in a series of releases drawing from a data set that includes several hundred million lines of code and includes the CIA's "entire hacking capacity."

 

The documents do not include actual computer code needed to conduct the cyber exploits they describe.

 

WikiLeaks said it published the CIA documents "while avoiding the distribution of 'armed' cyber weapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA's program and how such 'weapons' should be analyzed, disarmed and published."

 

U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Wikileaks has ties to Russia's security services. During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Wikileaks published internal emails of top Democratic Party officials, which the agencies said were hacked by Moscow as part of a coordinated influence campaign to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

 

WikiLeaks has denied ties to Russian spy agencies.

 

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they did not know where WikiLeaks might have obtained the material.

 

In a press release, the group said, "The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."

 

U.S. intelligence agencies have suffered a series of major security breaches, including Snowden's.

 

In 2010, U.S. military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning provided more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to Wikileaks. President Barack Obama shortened her prison sentence in January.

 

Last month, former NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin was indicted on charges of taking highly sensitive government materials over a course of 20 years, storing the trove of secrets in his home.

 

A longtime intelligence contractor with expertise in U.S. hacking tools said that people in the CIA and the NSA were "furious" about the apparent new breach. "This is not a Snowden-type situation," he said. "This was taken over a long term and handed over to WikiLeaks."

 

(Reporting by Dustin Volz and Warren Strobel; additional reporting by Joe Menn, Mark Hosenball, Jonathan Landay and Jim Finkle; Editing by Bill Trott and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-08

[Srikcir]

What a timely diversion from the Russian hacking investigations of the American presidential election process.

Just immediately following Trump's accusation that Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the election.

More Russian assistance?

[boomerangutang]

       Tapping communication devices is a very subjective topic.  

 

       For example:  Trump loves tapping when it benefits himself.  He even publicly asked Russkies to tap a US private citizen's communications.   But most of the time, particularly now, Trump hates hacking, because it implicates him, Kushner, Bannon, and others in his inner circle, - as conspiring with a hostile country (Russia) to skew the US election.  Lots more  headlines to come on this topic.  We still haven't seen Trump's tax returns.  Even if it were true that The Divider can't release tax returns for 2016 (not true, according to IRS), then what about Trump's tax form for prior years?

 

             We also haven't heard what's in the 'Pee Pee Tapes.'  Lots more news will be dribbling out, and it's all going to be bad for Trump and his henchmen.  

 

 

[Linzz]

38 minutes ago, boomerangutang said:

       Tapping communication devices is a very subjective topic.  

 

       For example:  Trump loves tapping when it benefits himself.  He even publicly asked Russkies to tap a US private citizen's communications.   But most of the time, particularly now, Trump hates hacking, because it implicates him, Kushner, Bannon, and others in his inner circle, - as conspiring with a hostile country (Russia) to skew the US election.  Lots more  headlines to come on this topic.  We still haven't seen Trump's tax returns.  Even if it were true that The Divider can't release tax returns for 2016 (not true, according to IRS), then what about Trump's tax form for prior years?

 

             We also haven't heard what's in the 'Pee Pee Tapes.'  Lots more news will be dribbling out, and it's all going to be bad for Trump and his henchmen.  

 

 

Totally agree Boomer about the tax returns. It's just nuts to have to wait this long for the revelation.

However now the media are horrified that Trump should tweet without evidence  yet we have had 6 months of the Russia narrative without a shred of evidence but this looks more a convenient bogey man to trot out in a new era of Mccarthyism. Of course I don't know the truth but nor do they but they act as if accepted fact. 

As far as Wikileaks goes revealing the extent of surveillance under the last administration I would not be surprised if Trump Tower has been tapped.None of wikileaks revelations despite who is behind it have been denied as non factual.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/7/we-live-in-truly-terrifying-times/

[craigt3365]

7 minutes ago, Linzz said:

Totally agree Boomer about the tax returns. It's just nuts to have to wait this long for the revelation.

However now the media are horrified that Trump should tweet without evidence  yet we have had 6 months of the Russia narrative without a shred of evidence but this looks more a convenient bogey man to trot out in a new era of Mccarthyism. Of course I don't know the truth but nor do they but they act as if accepted fact. 

As far as Wikileaks goes revealing the extent of surveillance under the last administration I would not be surprised if Trump Tower has been tapped.None of wikileaks revelations despite who is behind it have been denied as non factual.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/7/we-live-in-truly-terrifying-times/

The "Russian Connection" is progressing quite nicely.  Lots more info forthcoming.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/07/politics/house-intelligence-committee-schedules-russia-hearing-march-20/index.html

Quote

House Intel schedules first Russia hearing for March 20

 

There's lots of evidence if you take the time to look for it.  No bogey man.

 

Where did Wikileaks say Trump Tower was tapped? LOL  And yes, Wiki has been proven to post incorrect info.  Easy to research that.

[Ramen087]

2 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

The "Russian Connection" is progressing quite nicely.  Lots more info forthcoming.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/07/politics/house-intelligence-committee-schedules-russia-hearing-march-20/index.html

There's lots of evidence if you take the time to look for it.  No bogey man.

Where did Wikileaks say Trump Tower was tapped? LOL  And yes, Wiki has been proven to post incorrect info.  Easy to research that.

[Andaman Al]

2 hours ago, Srikcir said:

What a timely diversion from the Russian hacking investigations of the American presidential election process.

Just immediately following Trump's accusation that Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the election.

More Russian assistance?

EXACTLY! This is a distraction from Trumps idiotic behaviour. Either that or just another staggering coincidence.

 

Assange is now a dead man walking. He has backed himself into a corner (yesterday he also said he has compromising info on the French Presidential candidates). He will die an old man in the Ecuador Embassy.

[Ramen087]

32 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

EXACTLY! This is a distraction from Trumps idiotic behaviour. Either that or just another staggering coincidence.

 

Assange is now a dead man walking. He has backed himself into a corner (yesterday he also said he has compromising info on the French Presidential candidates). He will die an old man in the Ecuador Embassy.

Who influenced Assange and WikiLeaks to release the information at this time?

Are you sure the Ecuadorian government will house J.A. indefinitely?

Edited March 8, 2017 by Ramen087

[Andaman Al]

7 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

Who influenced Assuage and WikiLeaks to release this information at the time?

Are you sure the Ecuadorian government will house J.A. indefinitely?

who knows.

who knows .

[Ramen087]

So Al, you seem to consider it an unintentional distraction from Russia/Trump...correct? Just a coincidence? Or done purposefully but by someone (or some organization/government) you cannot name, and do not know?

Edited March 8, 2017 by Ramen087

[Andaman Al]

6 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

So Al, you seem to consider it an unintentional distraction from Russia/Trump...correct? Just a coincidence? Or done purposefully but by someone (or some organization/government) you cannot name, and do not know?

No i consider it an intentional distraction to take some of the heat off team Trump. It is not a coincidence. As for your last sentence about naming who it is I will adopt Bannon/Trump's defence statement from yesterday "we will absolutely not name them as lives could be endangered and we would lose the upper hand we already have".

[Ramen087]

3 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

No i consider it an intentional distraction to take some of the heat off team Trump. It is not a coincidence. As for your last sentence about naming who it is I will adopt Bannon/Trump's defence statement from yesterday "we will absolutely not name them as lives could be endangered and we would lose the upper hand we already have".

Fair enough... thank you. 

[boomerangutang]

2 hours ago, Linzz said:

Totally agree Boomer about the tax returns. It's just nuts to have to wait this long for the revelation.

However now the media are horrified that Trump should tweet without evidence  yet we have had 6 months of the Russia narrative without a shred of evidence but this looks more a convenient bogey man to trot out in a new era of Mccarthyism. Of course I don't know the truth but nor do they but they act as if accepted fact. 

As far as Wikileaks goes revealing the extent of surveillance under the last administration I would not be surprised if Trump Tower has been tapped.None of wikileaks revelations despite who is behind it have been denied as non factual.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/7/we-live-in-truly-terrifying-times/

        It's good we agree on most points.  Several interesting things swirling around now.  The media is referencing Trump's immature tweet a "the FBI or NSA (or whomever) ....wire tapped Trump Tower"

While that may be true, that's not what Trump said in his Tweet.  Trump specifically targeted OBAMA with personally breaking the law by illegally wire-tapping TRUMP's communications.   The media should first deal with what Trump actually tweets.  Thus far, on this topic, that's all we have to deal with, because Trump is too chicken-shit scared-stupid to elaborate.

 

        If Trump Tower (which has many offices and many people staying there) was wiretapped, then FBI or whomever probably had good cause to do so - particularly if it proves to be true that a computer in Trump Tower was communicating exclusively with a computer in a Moscow Bank owned by one of Putin's confidants. There's lots more to dig up on this trail.   Trump is a very stupid man to have opened that whole can of worms.  No one, outside of a few left-wing journalists, were looking closely at that item, until the hot-head conspiracy-theorist let loose with a whiz of tweets 5 days ago.

 

 

[boomerangutang]

          Now a leading Republican congressman (Nunez) has just come out calling Trump "a neophyte" and asking the press corps to go easy on him, and not take what he says 'literally.'   That's the soggiest excuse I've heard.  Congressman Nunez is trying to shield the president by making excuses for Trump's infantile rants.   

 

      That's like a kindergarten teacher showing parents around her classroom and saying, "Please don't judge mind Donny there.   He's from a very rich family and likes to wipe his feces on the walls when he gets angry.  He's still learning about school, and his parents donate lots of money, so we put up with him.  Sometimes he blurts something out that's a bit sensible-sounding.  We're hoping he'll be sensible most of the time.   He's cute though, isn't he? ....with that wild lock of orange hair."

[boomerangutang]

a bit of sense. . . . . . . . .

 

 

[Linzz]

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

  Now a leading Republican congressman (Nunez) has just come out calling Trump "a neophyte" and asking the press corps to go easy on him, and not take what he says 'literally.'   That's the soggiest excuse I've heard.  Congressman Nunez is trying to shield the president by making excuses for Trump's infantile rants.   

I agree that his staff have a hard time scrambling to find explanations when he blindsides them all in a surprise tweet. They must  wake up smacking their foreheads at his unpredictability. He hits back and changes the hot topic of the day with another which is his style, as in business someone would sue him he would turn around and sue them back and everything would get tangled up in legal cobwebs and disappear. 

But as a non politician I will give him credit at not being 2 faced or trying to be all things to all men. Certainly not a chameleon, what you see is what you get (like it or not) which is not your usual politician. Also unusual for a politician is carrying out what he promised in his election campaign, (putting aside the merits of or otherwise). 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Linzz said:

I agree that his staff have a hard time scrambling to find explanations when he blindsides them all in a surprise tweet. They must  wake up smacking their foreheads at his unpredictability. He hits back and changes the hot topic of the day with another which is his style, as in business someone would sue him he would turn around and sue them back and everything would get tangled up in legal cobwebs and disappear. 

But as a non politician I will give him credit at not being 2 faced or trying to be all things to all men. Certainly not a chameleon, what you see is what you get (like it or not) which is not your usual politician. Also unusual for a politician is carrying out what he promised in his election campaign, (putting aside the merits of or otherwise). 

You mean like his great plan to replace obamacare?

Or to let the government negotiate prices with big pharma?

Or to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office?

[Scott]

Please stay on the topic.