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Wikileaks dumps huge archive of CIA hacking secrets

24

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,710 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    9399fc0c851722e8e78b4e14aedd695a.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,710 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    Impossible to spy on everyone, too much data. What they are going are spying on people they choose to spy on.
    That's not me, or you .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,710 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    How will this affect Samsung's share price.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,631 ✭✭✭✭Hank Scorpio


    Impossible to spy on everyone, too much data. What they are going are spying on people they choose to spy on.
    That's not me, or you .

    Wrong.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/03/everyone-is-under-surveillance-now-says-whistleblower-edward-snowden


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,667 ✭✭✭ceadaoin.


    Down the rabbit hole we go

    exEpsg8.png

    There has been a theory for years that the death of a journalist was caused by his car being hacked causing it to crash. Confirmed?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,202 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose



    Yes, the NSA are quite open about this. The thinking is something along the lines of Predictive Failure:

    https://nsa.gov1.info/data/

    The cellular location tracking subsystem alone collects five billion datapoints daily and feeds into a 27 TB datastore. The last information I saw was that in total the NSA looks at 1.6% of Internet traffic, or 27 PB.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,202 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    ceadaoin. wrote: »
    There has been a theory for years that the death of a journalist was caused by his car being hacked causing it to crash. Confirmed?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist)

    I'm not going to tell you it was impossible, but I personally find it rather implausible that a rented 2013 Mercedes C250 was remotely interfered with like that.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,710 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Yes, the NSA are quite open about this. The thinking is something along the lines of Predictive Failure:

    https://nsa.gov1.info/data/

    The cellular location tracking subsystem alone collects five billion datapoints daily and feeds into a 27 TB datastore. The last information I saw was that in total the NSA looks at 1.6% of Internet traffic, or 27 PB.

    How is that even legal? It's an admission of guilty, people have a right to privacy.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,631 ✭✭✭✭Hank Scorpio


    anyone want to come hang out on their irc channel?

    https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_4849704.html


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,202 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    How is that even legal? It's an admission of guilty, people have a right to privacy.

    The Patriot Act.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,190 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    How is that even legal? It's an admission of guilty, people have a right to privacy.
    Look at the URL. That's not a US government website.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    I often wonder about leaks like this. I'd say it could easily be seen as propaganda. American forces are always shown to have ultimate access, they can go anywhere and hack anything.

    But with something like a smart TV hack or even the car hacks, isn't it also true that anyone with the required expertise could do the same thing? I remember students hacked a car (a prius I think) and said it was remarkably easy to do. Cars don't have great security to begin with. Smart TVs having pretty a standard OS so that anyone can develop apps for them would mean they are bound to have flaws.

    The CIA saying here's some stuff we've tried isn't exactly the same thing as here's stuff we're doing to all of you.

    Maybe it's in the interests of the likes of the CIA that we believe they can do all these things. Even if they can only sort of do them under certain circumstances.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,631 ✭✭✭✭Hank Scorpio




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,774 ✭✭✭✭RobertKK


    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.

    Assange released a file where Hillary Clinton asked if they could simply 'drone' Julian Assange. This was before he took refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy.
    I think Assange got what he wanted. He helped drone Hillary's campaign.

    As for smartphones, I think we have known for a while the cameras could be accessed and conversations listened to.
    With smart TVs maybe less so, but one would have had to suspect it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,202 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    RobertKK wrote: »
    ...With smart TVs maybe less so, but one would have had to suspect it.

    The main enabler for this is an incredible attack The Dumbz on Samsung's part, to wit, sending over TCP port 443 without proper SSL encryption. Handily, this port is of course typically allowed through a NAT firewall.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


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

    Hobbyists have been able to hack cars and control them remotely. No need for a conspiracy in regards to it. Car manufacturers came into this kind of tech late and have been caught out by it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,856 ✭✭✭✭BattleCorp


    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.

    You can be sure most of that info is in paper files and not uploaded onto a computer anywhere.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    Hobbyists have been able to hack cars and control them remotely. No need for a conspiracy in regards to it. Car manufacturers came into this kind of tech late and have been caught out by it.
    I saw the video were they hacked a car and took over the ability to control the brakes along with other less important things.

    They ripped apart the car to do it, it wasn't the case they could just link up to it wirelessly and take control of the car, they had to bypass physical controls and make a way of accessing it. It wasn't that simple. I doubt there's anyway to make a wireless connection to the ECU of a car without adding hardware for instance.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,360 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    ScumLord wrote: »
    I saw the video were they hacked a car and took over the ability to control the brakes along with other less important things.

    They ripped apart the car to do it, it wasn't the case they could just link up to it wirelessly and take control of the car, they had to bypass physical controls and make a way of accessing it. It wasn't that simple. I doubt there's anyway to make a wireless connection to the ECU of a car without adding hardware for instance.

    Yeah, it's been a while since I've seen what a few different projects have done. As I said, that is regarding what hobbyists have been able to do with reduced resources and/or skills.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,976 ✭✭✭✭humanji


    So essentially what everyone knew for the last couple of decades, about people being able to use our electronic devices to spy on us, has been proven, but apparently we're being made to believe only the "evil" West would do it? And it's all a coincidence that Wikileaks reveal this just after Trump claims he was tapped and has turned on his own Intel organisations?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,316 ✭✭✭✭the_syco


    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
    My cynical view is that since Russia gives Snowden protection, it'll only be Western democracy secrets which get released.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,291 ✭✭✭✭Gatling


    the_syco wrote: »
    My cynical view is that since Russia gives Snowden protection, it'll only be Western democracy secrets which get released.

    That's it in a nutshell


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,631 ✭✭✭✭Hank Scorpio


    If this is true the CIA must be in full blown panic mode, and Assange might have laid his bed. Drip drip drip.

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839475557721116672


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,856 ✭✭✭✭BattleCorp


    I'm not very computer savvy but if the CIA and the NSA are so good at hacking everything, how come they haven't hacked WikiLeaks and erased as much of the evidence against them as they can? Or have they?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 281 ✭✭skankkuvhima


    BattleCorp wrote: »
    I'm not very computer savvy but if the CIA and the NSA are so good at hacking everything, how come they haven't hacked WikiLeaks and erased as much of the evidence against them as they can? Or have they?

    If you are knowledgeable enough about computer security, cryptography, data protection etc etc, it is actually possible to protect your data from attackers. You just have to be very careful, much more careful than the average victim of the CIA.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,202 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    BattleCorp wrote: »
    I'm not very computer savvy but if the CIA and the NSA are so good at hacking everything, how come they haven't hacked WikiLeaks and erased as much of the evidence against them as they can? Or have they?

    They're not all that particularly good at it, they have the budget and Government backing to exploit various vulnerabilities (e.g. see post #46 above) more so than more regular, run-of-the-mill crackers. And yes, I am slightly offended by this continuing abuse and mis-mangling of the term "hacker". :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 281 ✭✭skankkuvhima


    If you are knowledgeable enough about computer security, cryptography, data protection etc etc, it is actually possible to protect your data from attackers. You just have to be very careful, much more careful than the average victim of the CIA.

    Just to add to that point. Wikileaks distribute their data via torrent. This means there is no one central location to attack. Just one example of how the US government would find it difficult to delete the data wikileaks has.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,100 ✭✭✭Autonomous Cowherd


    humanji wrote: »
    So essentially what everyone knew for the last couple of decades, about people being able to use our electronic devices to spy on us, has been proven, but apparently we're being made to believe only the "evil" West would do it? And it's all a coincidence that Wikileaks reveal this just after Trump claims he was tapped and has turned on his own Intel organisations?

    So many things in this one comment...
    1) if everyone knew it already, it makes it okay? Because we are post-ironic society, right?
    2) no ''people'' are not able to use our electronic devices to spy on us...only certain ones are, those in positions of authority and power, nameless suits in intel organsiations who have the ability to completely fcuk up other peoples lives. When your neighbour gets one of those (imaginary?) ray guns to point at your house to hear you making love then you can say ''people'' are able to spy on you
    3)being made to believe the ''evil'' west would do it etc....uh, well ...sorry, laughing break....up till now it was all about making us believe that only the ''evil'' eastern bloc with their crafty microphones in ashtrays in every café would do it
    4)Trump was tapped. He is probably justified to look askance at his own intel organisations. I'm no fan of his (or Hillary) but whatever happened to your lad won, my lad lost, see you on the hustings next time round? The whole scenario that has unfolded ever since his election amounts to the illusion of democracy being shattered. Ditto the whole post 9/11 - war on 'terror' justification for the ever-increasing Orwellian powers of government agencies.
    I tell my coffee maker what i think of it all, just so they know how I feel :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,976 ✭✭✭✭humanji


    If this is true the CIA must be in full blown panic mode, and Assange might have laid his bed. Drip drip drip.

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839475557721116672
    I guarantee they don't give a f*ck about the content. They're not competing against average joes, they're competing against other nations. And those other nations have the same capabilities. The CIA only care that there was a leak. That'll be shored up and life will continue as normal.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,631 ✭✭✭✭Hank Scorpio


    humanji wrote: »
    I guarantee they don't give a f*ck about the content. They're not competing against average joes, they're competing against other nations. And those other nations have the same capabilities. The CIA only care that there was a leak. That'll be shored up and life will continue as normal.

    Of course they do, for one thing under the Obama administration a law was passed that they had to tell tech companies since 2010 about new vulnerabilities they discovered, the leak shows they do the opposite.


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