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One thing you have to love about the media, they will always be so preoccupied with their agenda they will have no time for historical analysis, research, and cross checking facts. So we remain focused on how those dastardly Russians hacked us in the 2017 elections when we hacked them almost two decades ago.
Wikileaks has once again shown why they are the most loved and hated web site on Earth. Yesterday they dumped another batch of secret documents into the media charade and it showed how the Master developer and user of hacking programs of our world is none other than our very own CIA.
Fancy that, we set the standard for not simply hacking everyone, but for embedding our little packages in abut every computer in the world so it could report back to us. Now the futuristic technology has been extended to iPhones and Smart TVs.
Did it ever occur to the media that Russian hacking might just be in retaliation for what we have already done to everyone else? Was it not Wikileaks that spilled the beans on the USA monitoring the phones and emails of foreign leaders, friend and foe alike a few years back?
Here are two current articles about what Wikileaks leaked this time, and a third article on why our hands are not clean on hacking, we wrote the book and our own people were among the victims.
Technology
WikiLeaks publishes massive trove of CIA spying files in 'Vault 7'
release
Andrew
Griffin,The
Independent
The files are the most
comprehensive release of US spying files ever made public, according to Julian
Assange. In all, there are 8,761 documents that account for "the entire
hacking capacity of the CIA", Mr Assange claimed in a release, and the
trove is just the first of a series of "Vault 7" leaks.
Already, the files
include far more pages than the Snowden files that exposed the vast hacking
power of the NSA and other agencies.
In publishing the
documents, WikiLeaks had ensured that the CIA had "lost control of its
arsenal", he claimed. That included a range of software and exploits that
if real could allow unparalleled control of computers around the world.
It includes software
that could allow people to take control of the most popular consumer
electronics products used today, claimed WikiLeaks.
"'Year Zero'
introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program,
its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits
against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's
iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which
are turned into covert microphones," the organisation said in a release.
The public files don't
include the cyber weapons themselves, according to a statement. The
organisation will refrain from distributing "armed" software
"until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the
CIA's program and how such 'weapons' should analyzed, disarmed and
published", it said.
The files were made
available by a source who intended for them to start a conversation about
whether the CIA had gained too much power, according to the organisation.
"In a statement to
WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be
debated in public, including whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its
mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency," a release
read. "The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security,
creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons."
It also redacts the
details of some of the names, locations and targets that are identified in the
documents.
Technology
WikiLeaks
claims the CIA built special tools for hacking iPhones and other Apple products
Kif Leswing,Business Insider
(AP)
Documents published on Tuesday by WikiLeaks claim to be evidence that the
"CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal."
According to the WikiLeaks files, it appears
that the CIA has teams specifically dedicated to breaking into Apple
products, including iOS, the software that runs on iPhones and iPads, and even
Apple's line of routers, AirPort.
The WikiLeaks files suggest that the CIA may
have access to undiscovered and unreported bugs, or exploits, in iOS, the
iPhone operating system.
"While our initial analysis indicates
that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we
will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities,"
Apple said in a statement.
Here's Apple's complete statement on the
WikiLeaks files:
"Apple is deeply committed to
safeguarding our customers’ privacy and security. 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. Our products and software are
designed to quickly get security updates into the hands of our customers, with
nearly 80 percent of users running the latest version of our
operating system. While our initial analysis indicates that many of the
issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue
work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities. We always urge
customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent
security updates.”
There is also evidence in the 7,818 web pages
and attached files that the CIA has tools to gain unauthorized access to
Android devices, smart
TVs, and other computers.
'Nothing interesting or new' about the published
exploits
(A screenshot of purported exploits the CIA was aware of
and documented.WikiLeaks)
Will Strafach, a security professional with extensive experience with iOS
exploits and CEO of Sudo Security Group, cast doubt about the "leaked
iOS stuff from CIA" on Twitter, saying that
there appeared to be "nothing interesting or new."
"So far, there is zero cause for
concern," Strafach told Business Insider. "They definitely have
vulnerability research (looks very similar to my own company's internal wiki),
but nothing which should be if any concern to a user on the latest iOS."
Apple regularly fixes the kind of bugs and
potential exploits that the CIA purportedly developed and bought. For maximum
security, you should update to the latest version of iOS on your iPhone or iPad
in Settings > General > Software Update.
In a statement accompanying
the document release, Wikileaks claimed that there was a group inside the CIA
specifically dedicated to hacking iPhones and iPads. Wikileaks wrote:
Despite iPhone's minority share (14.5%) of
the global smart phone market in 2016, a specialized unit in the CIA's Mobile
Development Branch produces malware to infest, control and exfiltrate data from iPhones
and other Apple products running iOS, such as iPads. CIA's arsenal includes numerous
local and remote "zero days" developed
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.
The U.S.
has a long history of hacking other democracies
By Mariya Y. Omelicheva, Ryan Beasley and Christian Crandall By
Mariya Y. Omelicheva, Ryan Beasley and Christian Crandall
December 20, 2016
The former commander in chief
of the Allied forces in Europe, Gen. Dwight
David “Ike” Eisenhower poses for a photographer at NATO Paris headquarters in
1951. (AFP/Getty Images)
Why do
democratic governments so often engage in violent covert actions?
The United States is roiled by controversy over Russia’s broad
covert operation to undermine the legitimacy of the 2016 presidential election
and Western democracy in general. But the U.S. government has interfered in
other democracies’ decisions with violent clandestine operations that go back
generations.
During
the George W. Bush administration, the American public learned about post-9/11
covert actions that many found disturbing, including secret memos
authorizing torture of terrorist suspects; a highly secretive program of “extraordinary
renditions,” which involved the government-sponsored capture and transfer
of detainees from U.S. jurisdiction to other states without due legal process
for purposes of detention and interrogation; and “black
sites,” or secret prisons operated by the CIA.
But as
our
research has found, those operations were a continuation of U.S. policy,
not a break with it.
Here’s how we did our research — and what we found
We
examined unclassified Central Intelligence Agency documents and historical
academic research on U.S.
interventions to identify 27 U.S.
clandestine operations carried out between 1949 and 2000.
Most U.S. “secret
wars” were against other democratic states.
Unclassified
documents published by the U.S.
national security archive at George Washington University
show that the British government helped the United
States overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, a democratically
elected prime minister of Iran,
and tried to block the release of information about its involvement in the coup.
But
that’s just one example. In 1954, an anti-Communist “army” trained and armed by
the CIA deposed democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala —
leading to years of violent civil war and rightist rule. Fifty-seven years
later, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, on behalf of the state,
asked Guzman’s family for forgiveness.
And in
1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the funding for the CIA-led “secret
wars” against the democratically elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
These are but a few examples of the U.S. covert operations abroad.
Kissinger:
Trump has opportunity to make history in U.S. foreign relations
During an interview aired Dec. 18, former secretary
of state Henry Kissinger said of foreign leaders' relationship to
President-elect Donald Trump, "It is a shocking experience to them that he
came into office, at the same time, an extraordinary opportunity." Kissinger says of foreign
leaders of Trump, "It is a shocking experience to them that he came into
office, at the same time, an extraordinary opportunity." (Reuters)
We
also examined the nationality of detainees in the “war on terror” between 2001 and
2006, when the United States
was casting the broadest net to find and detain prisoners. The individuals
detained by the U.S.
military on the orders of the U.S.
administration were placed at the Guantanamo
Bay detention camp in Cuba or transferred to Abu Ghraib in Iraq. There is
a public record of their detention.
In
parallel to the U.S.
military operations, the CIA seized several people in foreign territories
suspected of hostile actions against the United States. Held incommunicado
and without due process of law, these individuals were placed in the CIA’s
secret prisons or sent to states known for forced disappearances and torture.
We
compiled the list of individuals covertly detained by the CIA from reports
by international human rights groups and independent news organizations
providing investigative reporting on the CIA renditions program. Our
analysis further confirmed that the United States was substantially
more likely to use clandestine coercion against citizens of democratic states.
Why do democratic governments engage in frequent violent
covert actions?
Policymakers
worry whether their actions will be perceived as legitimate. Legitimacy comes
in part from keeping policies consistent with citizens’ interests and
expectations.
For
instance, since wars and violence are inimical to citizens’ interest in
self-preservation and freedom, policymakers are predisposed to value peace.
Democratic governments will launch open violence only if they think they
can persuade citizens that those actions are legitimate.
While
working covertly to bring down democracies, the United States also worked to
engineer public support for overt use of force, if necessary. For instance, in
1954, the Eisenhower administration spread fearmongering propaganda about
the “communist leanings” of the Guatemalan president. The
U.S. news media subsequently misrepresented the coup as a successful
restoration of democracy in Guatemala,
carried out by local freedom fighters.
The
news media did not report what it did not know: that the CIA had masterminded
and funded the revolt. Similarly, the British government used the BBC’s
Persian service to spread anti-Mosaddegh attitudes before the 1954 Iranian
coup.
When
democratic governments can’t get their citizens to support coercive policies
abroad, they — at times — can and do resort to covert force.
Mariya Y.
Omelicheva is associate professor in the department of political
science at the University
of Kansas.
Christian
Crandall is professor in the department of psychology at the University of Kansas.
Ryan
Beasley is senior lecturer in the school of international relations at St. Andrews University.
.
