WikiLeaks: Agenda Compromised or Stronger Than Ever?

The post WikiLeaks: Agenda Compromised or Stronger Than Ever? appeared first on WhoWhatWhy.

Love him or hate him, Julian Assange has a way of keeping himself at the top of the newsreel these days.

The latest trove of documents revealed via Assange’s infamous WikiLeaks platform is the first of a multi-part series known as “Vault 7.” Mysteriously teased in February, Vault 7 reveals a variety of details on the depth and breadth of the Central Intelligence Agency’s hacking capabilities.

According to the information put out by WikiLeaks, which seems to be authentic, the CIA is able to probe the personal communications devices of people all over the world. This includes iPhones, Android devices, computers, and even Samsung smart TVs. By rooting communication devices, the CIA is able to read the contents of communications before they are encrypted by popular services like Signal and WhatsApp.

The hack is not only revelatory in terms of the devices and programs compromised by the CIA, but the fact that the CIA has let its cyber weapons be traded so freely among government contractors and others in the web of hackers employed by the CIA. In addition, it appears that the CIA is capable of misattributing their cyberattacks to other state actors, thus throwing into question some of their intelligence assessments about recent cyberattacks.

It is important to note that Wikileaks has chosen not to release the actual code for the hacking tools, but instead to reach out to Apple, Microsoft and others so they can patch their code.

WikiLeaks has contacted Apple, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla & MicroTik to help protect users against CIA malware

Ref https://t.co/h5wzfrReyy

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 14, 2017

Despite the fascinating information revealed by the leaks, WikiLeaks still leaves a bad taste in the mouth of many Americans who blame Assange for throwing last year’s presidential election to Donald Trump. During the campaign last year, WikiLeaks revealed a variety of information on the internal workings of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) illegally obtained from their private servers. WikiLeaks also dumped the contents of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account, which was obtained when some unknown actor employed a successful phishing attack against Podesta. 

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