Wikileaks

Source code for CIA’s tool to track Whistleblowers leaked by Wikileaks

Scribbles, a.k.a. the "Snowden Stopper," is a piece of software allegedly designed to embed 'web beacon' tags into confidential documents, allowing the spying agency to track whistleblowers and foreign spies.

Since March, as part of its "Vault 7" series, the Whistleblowing website has published thousands of documents and other confidential information that the whistleblower group claims came from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“Weeping Angel” By CIA, a hacking tool for your television

The latest revelation includes a user guide for CIA’s “Weeping Angel” tool. It was a part of the first lot of CIA hacking tools released by Wikileaks in March.

Weeping Angel is derived from another tool called “Extending” which belongs to UK’s intelligence agency MI5/BTSS, according to Wikileaks.

Extending takes control of Samsung F Series Smart TV. The highly detailed user guide describes it as an implant “designed to record audio from the built-in microphone and egress or store the data.”

WikiLeaks Docs reveal how the CIA targets Windows users

The files pertain mostly to Grasshopper, a framework used to build custom installation executables, and the agency's use of the Carberp malware in its Stolen Goods persistence mechanism. This leak puts the spotlight on another of the CIA's internal tools and on how it repurposes public malware to suit its own purposes.

WikiLeaks won't disclose CIA exploits until certain demands are met

This follows a leak of a roughly 8,761 documents that Wikileaks claimed belonged to CIA hacking units.

"We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out," WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said during a Facebook Live press conference last week.

However, it looks like the things aren't that easier for tech companies as they look.

Wikileaks is offering tech firms CIA files first

The anti-secrecy website has published thousands of the US spy agency's secret documents, including what it says are the CIA's hacking tools.

Founder Julian Assange said that, after some thought, he had decided to give the tech community further leaks first.

"Once the material is effectively disarmed, we will publish additional details," Mr Assange said.

US federal agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the release of the documents.

Spicer attacks 'double standard' in response to WikiLeaks dump

After expressing concern about Wikileaks' release of documents allegedly revealing CIA surveillance techniques, Spicer quickly muddled his message.

He connected the latest WikiLeaks document dump to surveillance efforts under the Obama administration, days after President Donald Trump's leveled his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama tapped the GOP candidate's phones during the 2016 campaign.

Apple, Samsung and Microsoft react to Wikileaks' CIA dump

Wikileaks published thousands of documents said to detail the US spy agency's hacking tools on Tuesday.

They included allegations the CIA had developed ways to listen in on smartphone and smart TV microphones.

Apple's statement was the most detailed, saying it had already addressed some of the vulnerabilities.

"The technology built into today's iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers, and we're constantly working to keep it that way," it said.

WikiLeaks claims to reveal how CIA hacks TVs and phones all over the world

To hide its operations, the CIA routinely adopted hacking techniques that enabled them to appear as if they were hackers in Russia, WikiLeaks said.

WikiLeaks also claimed that nearly all of the CIA's arsenal of privacy-crushing cyberweapons have been stolen, and the tools are potentially in the hands of criminals and foreign spies.

WikiLeaks claimed the stolen tools ended up in the hands of "former U.S. government hackers and contractors... one of whom" leaked documents to WikiLeaks.

Wikileaks: CIA has tools to snoop via TVs

The alleged cyber-weapons are said to include malware that targets Windows, Android, iOS, OSX and Linux computers as well as internet routers.

Some of the software is reported to have been developed in-house, but the UK's MI5 agency is said to have helped build a spyware attack for Samsung TVs.

A spokesman for the CIA would not confirm the details.

"We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents," he said.

Trump in 2010: WikiLeaks 'disgraceful'

Speaking on camera to preview Brian Kilmeade's radio show, the Fox News anchor brought up the topic of WikiLeaks. At the time, WikiLeaks had published hundreds of thousands of classified documents and videos that were leaked to the organization by Pfc. Chelsea Manning, known at the time as Pfc. Bradley Manning.

"I think it's disgraceful, I think there should be like death penalty or something," Trump said during the quick exchange uncovered online by CNN's KFile.