Press Release<\/strong><\/h2>\nToday, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named \u201cVault 7\u201d by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.<\/p>\n
The first full part of the series, \u201cYear Zero\u201d, comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA\u2019s\u00a0Center for Cyber Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of\u00a0CIA targeting French political parties and candidates in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\nRecently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized \u201czero day\u201d 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, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear Zero\u201d introduces the scope and direction of the CIA\u2019s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of \u201czero day\u201d weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple\u2019s iPhone, Google\u2019s Android and Microsoft\u2019s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.<\/p>\n
Since 2001 the CIA has gained political and budgetary preeminence over the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA found itself building not just its now infamous drone fleet, but a very different type of covert, globe-spanning force \u2014 its own substantial fleet of hackers. The agency\u2019s hacking division freed it from having to disclose its often controversial operations to the NSA (its primary bureaucratic rival) in order to draw on the NSA\u2019s hacking capacities.<\/p>\n
By the end of 2016, the CIA\u2019s hacking division, which formally falls under the agency\u2019s\u00a0Center for Cyber Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0(CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other \u201cweaponized\u201d malware. Such is the scale of the CIA\u2019s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. The CIA had created, in effect, its \u201cown NSA\u201d with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.<\/p>\nIn a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA\u2019s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.<\/p>\n
Once a single cyber \u2018weapon\u2019 is \u2018loose\u2019 it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.<\/p>\n
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor stated that \u201cThere is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber \u2018weapons\u2019. Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such \u2018weapons\u2019, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. But the significance of \u201cYear Zero\u201d goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wikileaks has carefully reviewed the \u201cYear Zero\u201d disclosure and published substantive CIA documentation while avoiding the distribution of \u2018armed\u2019 cyberweapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA\u2019s program and how such \u2018weapons\u2019 should analyzed, disarmed and published.<\/p>\n
Wikileaks has also decided to\u00a0redact<\/a>\u00a0and anonymise some identifying information in \u201cYear Zero\u201d for in depth analysis. These redactions include ten of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States. While we are aware of the imperfect results of any approach chosen, we remain committed to our publishing model and note that the quantity of published pages in \u201cVault 7\u201d part one (\u201cYear Zero\u201d) already eclipses the total number of pages published over the first three years of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks.<\/p>\nAnalysis<\/h1>\nCIA malware targets iPhone, Android, smart TVs<\/h3>\n
CIA malware and hacking tools are built by EDG (Engineering Development Group), a software development group within CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence), a department belonging to the CIA\u2019s DDI (Directorate for Digital Innovation). The DDI is one of the five major directorates of the CIA (see this\u00a0organizational chart<\/a>\u00a0of the CIA for more details).<\/p>\nThe EDG is responsible for the development, testing and operational support of all backdoors, exploits, malicious payloads, trojans, viruses and any other kind of malware used by the CIA in its covert operations world-wide.<\/p>\n
The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell\u2019s 1984, but \u201cWeeping Angel\u201d, developed by the CIA\u2019s\u00a0Embedded Devices Branch (EDB)<\/a>, which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.<\/p>\nThe attack against\u00a0Samsung smart TVs<\/a>\u00a0was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom\u2019s MI5\/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a \u2018Fake-Off\u2019 mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In \u2018Fake-Off\u2019 mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.<\/p>\nAs of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at\u00a0infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks<\/a>. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.<\/p>\nThe CIA\u2019s Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed\u00a0numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones<\/a>. Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user\u2019s geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone\u2019s camera and microphone.<\/p>\nDespite iPhone\u2019s minority share (14.5%) of the global smart phone market in 2016, a specialized unit in the CIA\u2019s Mobile Development Branch produces malware to infest, control and exfiltrate data from\u00a0iPhones and other Apple products running iOS, such as iPads<\/a>. CIA\u2019s arsenal includes\u00a0numerous local and remote \u201czero days\u201d<\/a>\u00a0developed by CIA or obtained from GCHQ, NSA, FBI or purchased from cyber arms contractors such as Baitshop. The disproportionate focus on iOS may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political, diplomatic and business elites.<\/p>\nA\u00a0similar unit targets Google\u2019s Android which is used to run the majority of the world\u2019s smart phones (~85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony<\/a>. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year. \u201cYear Zero\u201d shows that as of 2016\u00a0the CIA had 24 \u201cweaponized\u201d Android \u201czero days\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which it has developed itself and obtained from GCHQ, NSA and cyber arms contractors.<\/p>\nThese techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the \u201csmart\u201d phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.<\/p>\n
What is the total size of \u201cVault 7\u201d?<\/h3>\n
The series is the largest intelligence publication in history.<\/p>\n
HERE<\/a>\u00a0is the documents page.<\/p>\nREAD MORE:<\/a> WikiLeaks Press Release<\/strong><\/p>\nRELATED:<\/a> WikiLeaks Vault 7: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know<\/strong><\/p>\n
![Center for Cyber Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of\u00a0](\"https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/ciav7p1\/files\/org-chart.png\"){kind=link}
Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized \u201czero day\u201d 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, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.<\/p>\n
\u201cYear Zero\u201d introduces the scope and direction of the CIA\u2019s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of \u201czero day\u201d weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple\u2019s iPhone, Google\u2019s Android and Microsoft\u2019s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.<\/p>\n
Since 2001 the CIA has gained political and budgetary preeminence over the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA found itself building not just its now infamous drone fleet, but a very different type of covert, globe-spanning force \u2014 its own substantial fleet of hackers. The agency\u2019s hacking division freed it from having to disclose its often controversial operations to the NSA (its primary bureaucratic rival) in order to draw on the NSA\u2019s hacking capacities.<\/p>\n
By the end of 2016, the CIA\u2019s hacking division, which formally falls under the agency\u2019s\u00a0Center for Cyber Intelligence<\/a>\u00a0(CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other \u201cweaponized\u201d malware. Such is the scale of the CIA\u2019s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. The CIA had created, in effect, its \u201cown NSA\u201d with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.<\/p>\n In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA\u2019s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.<\/p>\n Once a single cyber \u2018weapon\u2019 is \u2018loose\u2019 it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.<\/p>\n Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor stated that \u201cThere is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber \u2018weapons\u2019. Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such \u2018weapons\u2019, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. But the significance of \u201cYear Zero\u201d goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Wikileaks has carefully reviewed the \u201cYear Zero\u201d disclosure and published substantive CIA documentation while avoiding the distribution of \u2018armed\u2019 cyberweapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA\u2019s program and how such \u2018weapons\u2019 should analyzed, disarmed and published.<\/p>\n Wikileaks has also decided to\u00a0redact<\/a>\u00a0and anonymise some identifying information in \u201cYear Zero\u201d for in depth analysis. These redactions include ten of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States. While we are aware of the imperfect results of any approach chosen, we remain committed to our publishing model and note that the quantity of published pages in \u201cVault 7\u201d part one (\u201cYear Zero\u201d) already eclipses the total number of pages published over the first three years of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks.<\/p>\n CIA malware and hacking tools are built by EDG (Engineering Development Group), a software development group within CCI (Center for Cyber Intelligence), a department belonging to the CIA\u2019s DDI (Directorate for Digital Innovation). The DDI is one of the five major directorates of the CIA (see this\u00a0organizational chart<\/a>\u00a0of the CIA for more details).<\/p>\n The EDG is responsible for the development, testing and operational support of all backdoors, exploits, malicious payloads, trojans, viruses and any other kind of malware used by the CIA in its covert operations world-wide.<\/p>\n The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell\u2019s 1984, but \u201cWeeping Angel\u201d, developed by the CIA\u2019s\u00a0Embedded Devices Branch (EDB)<\/a>, which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.<\/p>\n The attack against\u00a0Samsung smart TVs<\/a>\u00a0was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom\u2019s MI5\/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a \u2018Fake-Off\u2019 mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In \u2018Fake-Off\u2019 mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.<\/p>\n As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at\u00a0infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks<\/a>. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.<\/p>\n The CIA\u2019s Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed\u00a0numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones<\/a>. Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user\u2019s geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone\u2019s camera and microphone.<\/p>\n Despite iPhone\u2019s minority share (14.5%) of the global smart phone market in 2016, a specialized unit in the CIA\u2019s Mobile Development Branch produces malware to infest, control and exfiltrate data from\u00a0iPhones and other Apple products running iOS, such as iPads<\/a>. CIA\u2019s arsenal includes\u00a0numerous local and remote \u201czero days\u201d<\/a>\u00a0developed by CIA or obtained from GCHQ, NSA, FBI or purchased from cyber arms contractors such as Baitshop. The disproportionate focus on iOS may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political, diplomatic and business elites.<\/p>\n A\u00a0similar unit targets Google\u2019s Android which is used to run the majority of the world\u2019s smart phones (~85%) including Samsung, HTC and Sony<\/a>. 1.15 billion Android powered phones were sold last year. \u201cYear Zero\u201d shows that as of 2016\u00a0the CIA had 24 \u201cweaponized\u201d Android \u201czero days\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which it has developed itself and obtained from GCHQ, NSA and cyber arms contractors.<\/p>\n These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the \u201csmart\u201d phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.<\/p>\n The series is the largest intelligence publication in history.<\/p>\n HERE<\/a>\u00a0is the documents page.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/a> WikiLeaks Press Release<\/strong><\/p>\n RELATED:<\/a> WikiLeaks Vault 7: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know<\/strong><\/p>\nAnalysis<\/h1>\n
CIA malware targets iPhone, Android, smart TVs<\/h3>\n
What is the total size of \u201cVault 7\u201d?<\/h3>\n