Wikileaks dumps huge archive of CIA hacking secrets

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 04:16PM #1

The worrying part is that the programs they used got out of hand and are publicly available. Anyone who obtains it with slight modification have the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. There's a tonne of information if you check their twitter feed as well as the raw files..

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839118747646427141

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839122455738339328

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839111036506603520

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839117384824852480

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839132303280451587

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 04:27PM

Down the rabbit hole we go

ziggy · 07-03-2017 04:28PM

This post has been deleted.

skankkuvhima · 07-03-2017 04:31PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Down the rabbit hole we go

Fuck that's nasty. If it wasn't for wikileaks people would say all of this is the talk of conspiracy nuts.

Winterlong · 07-03-2017 04:33PM

Has Trump decided if this is fake news or the terrible action of Obama yet?

Irish Praetorian · 07-03-2017 04:35PM

I can't really knock a hacktivist organisation releasing what it believes to be files in the public interest, but it would nice if every so often the target wasn't a Western democracy. I mean the laser focus on Hillary Clinton during the election didn't exactly work out so well.

Ubbquittious · 07-03-2017 04:37PM

skankkuvhima wrote: »

Fuck that's nasty. If it wasn't for wikileaks people would say all of this is the talk of conspiracy nuts.

They keep denying it and saying it's conspiracy nutter stuff until they can no longer deny it then they start saying "of course they were spying on you", "what did you expect", "government has to keep up with technological progress", "nothing to hide"

Once their wages keep getting lodged in their bank account and their car still starts in the morning the ordinary plebity don't care about privacy one bit. Most have already traded in their privacy for a few facebook likes anyway

seamus · 07-03-2017 04:38PM

Nothing really surprising there, it's been known for a number of years that the CIA have, through a bloated US military budget, been developing exploits for any and every piece of technology available.

And they will continue to do so.

Obviously people will defend this on the basis of "if we don't, then the bad guys will", but the fact that they hoard the exploits rather than act to fix them proves that it's not about preventing terrorists from committing acts. It's about gathering intelligence; the clue is in the name of the agency.

Of course, for the most part these tools are being used on innocent civilians rather than actual terrorists.

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 04:38PM

Irish Praetorian wrote: »

I can't really knock a hacktivist organisation releasing what it believes to be files in the public interest, but it would nice if every so often the target wasn't a Western democracy. I mean the laser focus on Hillary Clinton during the election didn't exactly work out so well.

They've released millions of documents on Russia, the middle east and other areas.

Autonomous Cowherd · 07-03-2017 04:40PM

can everyone 'sensible' stop pretending we are not living in a dystopian sci fi novel yet?
No?

Still too soon?
:P

07-03-2017 04:45PM

I look forward to their release of all the files on Britain's dirty war in the Six Counties, and Dublin, and Monaghan.... I especially look forward to reading the names of all journalists in Independent Newspapers who have been in the pay of British Intelligence since 1969.

What a glorious, glorious day that would be.

jimgoose · 07-03-2017 04:46PM

KingBrian2 · 07-03-2017 04:49PM

Irish Praetorian wrote: »

I can't really knock a hacktivist organisation releasing what it believes to be files in the public interest, but it would nice if every so often the target wasn't a Western democracy. I mean the laser focus on Hillary Clinton during the election didn't exactly work out so well.

Were not for Wikileaks we would never have know the Clinton Foundation had links to Saudi Arabia and Qatar was influencing American foreign policy.

Irish Praetorian · 07-03-2017 04:50PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

They've released millions of documents on Russia, the middle east and other areas.

Pertaining to, certainly, but those are mostly of US origin, if you actually look for documents from Russia itself, it's fairly slim pickings.

seamus · 07-03-2017 04:50PM

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

can everyone 'sensible' stop pretending we are not living in a dystopian sci fi novel yet?

"We're" not, not really.

Americans have a particular problem where they have an effectively unlimited security budget internally and externally, to the point that they have to continually engage in activities which justify their budgets. This results in the large-scale "they're listening to everyone" operations that the NSA engages in, and as a result every American should be under the assumption that they're either being monitored or are one dodgy phone call/email/text message away from being monitored. "Now you're on a list" is a common joke in the US whenever anyone makes a potentially violent statement, but is also a reminder for Americans to assume that the government is always listening.

The same issue doesn't exist in Europe. The perpetually paranoid and terrified continually complain about how little Europeans countries spending on security, so as a result the level of monitoring which occurs over here is far smaller.
If you send an email today saying you'd love to kill Micheal D., the odds of a Garda appearing at your door tomorrow are close to zero.

That's not to say you can't take it for granted that what you say isn't likely to be scanned by some system or other, but the likelihood of it being actively used against you or recorded for future use is close to nothing.

There is some spillover of course, some level of US spying that infringes on the privacy of non-US citizens. But again, practically zero chance it'll ever be stored or used against you.

weisses · 07-03-2017 04:52PM

Unnamed sources, so fake Fake news ... ...

According to the Donald

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 04:53PM

One of the most troubling aspects to this is you were running for public office, the CIA would have essentially a life time supply of info and have you by the balls.

Irish Praetorian · 07-03-2017 04:56PM

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Were not for Wikileaks we would never have know the Clinton Foundation had links to Saudi Arabia and Qatar was influencing American foreign policy.

Would we not? Come now that's been the worst kept secret in Washington since before there was a Clinton in the White House. And just on a technical matters, the revelation was ME funding more than direct influence, and to be fair that's a problem across DC.

jimgoose · 07-03-2017 04:57PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

One of the most troubling aspects to this is you were running for public office, the CIA would have essentially a life time supply of info and have you by the balls.

This kind of thing is going on for years. Best example to hand: the Narus STA 6400 rig in AT&T's "Room 641A", which had been running since 2003 and we heard about in 2006.

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 05:02PM

Third paragraph in the press release might be the biggest story

"Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. 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 archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner"

jimgoose · 07-03-2017 05:08PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

Third paragraph in the press release might be the biggest story

"Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. 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 archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner"

"
..
Off they run, till wet and wetter
Hall and steps immersed are Iying.
What a flood that naught can fetter!
Lord and master, hear me crying! -
Ah, he comes excited.
Sir, my need is sore.
Spirits that I've cited
My commands ignore.
..
"

07-03-2017 05:13PM

seamus wrote: »

"We're" not, not really.

Americans have a particular problem where they have an effectively unlimited security budget internally and externally, to the point that they have to continually engage in activities which justify their budgets. This results in the large-scale "they're listening to everyone" operations that the NSA engages in, and as a result every American should be under the assumption that they're either being monitored or are one dodgy phone call/email/text message away from being monitored. "Now you're on a list" is a common joke in the US whenever anyone makes a potentially violent statement, but is also a reminder for Americans to assume that the government is always listening.

The same issue doesn't exist in Europe. The perpetually paranoid and terrified continually complain about how little Europeans countries spending on security, so as a result the level of monitoring which occurs over here is far smaller.
If you send an email today saying you'd love to kill Micheal D., the odds of a Garda appearing at your door tomorrow are close to zero.

That's not to say you can't take it for granted that what you say isn't likely to be scanned by some system or other, but the likelihood of it being actively used against you or recorded for future use is close to nothing.

There is some spillover of course, some level of US spying that infringes on the privacy of non-US citizens. But again, practically zero chance it'll ever be stored or used against you.

GCHQ does the same and there's not too much traffic here that doesn't pass through either the UK or the US. There's no need to spend as much as the US do now, the software was developed years ago in parallel by spooks and by private groups, the software is in the wild and has been for a while.

Gatling · 07-03-2017 05:15PM

KingBrian2 wrote: »

Were not for Wikileaks we would never have know the Clinton Foundation had links to Saudi Arabia and Qatar was influencing American foreign policy.

Didn't need wikileaks for the russian invasion of the White House ,

Oddly they seem very quite about that.

Actually they are Very Very quite unless it's supporting attacks on Obama and Clinton

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 05:20PM

Gatling wrote: »

Didn't need wikileaks for the russian invasion of the White House ,

Oddly they seem very quite about that.

Actually they are Very Very quite unless it's supporting attacks on Obama and Clinton

Don't forget Bush.

Also the only people I see doing the "attacking" are the CIA.

If these programs were publicly floating around the Russian narrative that they hacked the DNC is going to take a hit

KingBrian2 · 07-03-2017 05:28PM

jimgoose wrote: »

This kind of thing is going on for years. Best example to hand: the Narus STA 6400 rig in AT&T's "Room 641A", which had been running since 2003 and we heard about in 2006.

Oh i forgot i meant only when Wikileaks published the details did the overwhelming reports get attention. Up to that point you were labeled a nutjob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVDTfn9DUBo

Gatling · 07-03-2017 05:29PM

None of this is actually new ,the Samsung TVs has been public knowledge for a few years Samsung was recording videos from the smart TVs that came with built in webcams ,the same for phones ,
Privacy stopped existing years ago sad but true

Professor Moriarty · 07-03-2017 05:32PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

One of the most troubling aspects to this is you were running for public office, the CIA would have essentially a life time supply of info and have you by the balls.

Luckily, The Donald has led an exemplary life.

hatrickpatrick · 07-03-2017 05:32PM

For some reason this made be think of the Prometheus sequel to Alien - hyper intelligent biological weapons get out of control and go on a rampage, destroying their creators in the process.

And this, folks, is exactly why we don't want the government getting its wish to insert backdoor access into our encrypted communication software. Even if you naively trust the government 100% not to abuse its power, it's only a matter of time before some bumbling fool accidentally lets the backdoor leak, or some enterprising group of hackers stumble upon it all by themselves.

Hank Scorpio · 07-03-2017 05:32PM

Gatling wrote: »

None of this is actually new ,the Samsung TVs has been public knowledge for a few years Samsung was recording videos from the smart TVs that came with built in webcams ,the same for phones ,
Privacy stopped existing years ago sad but true

It is not new that the CIA hacking tools have been floating around publicly? That's the whole premise of the release.

Snowden's stuff focused mostly on information gathering, this release focuses on the actual hacking tools used, along with their code.

Your Face · 07-03-2017 05:33PM

So did they find aliens or not?

Gatling · 07-03-2017 05:35PM

Hank Scorpio wrote: »

It is not new that the CIA hacking tools have been floating around publicly? That's the whole premise of the release.

Snowden's stuff focused mostly on information gathering, this release focuses on the actual tools used.

If it's been out there in the public chances are because it was allowed to be out there ,
Especially the idea that this much information and tools are been used but yet they can't keep anything secure on their side

Wikileaks dumps huge archive of CIA hacking secrets

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