WikiLeaks nukes CIA, digital giants with multi-megaton PR crisis [Updated]
Can the CIA spy on you by hacking your smartphones, TVs, cars and computer operating systems? Did it unleash malware on the world? A document dump leaves organizations scrambling.
But this week’s allegations from WikiLeaks that the CIA can hack smartphones, TVs and cars have detonated a public relations neutron bomb over the biggest digital organizations and device makers on the planet.
Meanwhile, the crisis klaxons are blaring in Washington, D.C. and at the CIA’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters.
On Tuesday WikiLeaks released a trove of 8,800 CIA documents and files it calls “Vault 7.” The digital dump allegedly details the agency’s covert hacking, malware arsenals and “weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.”
The anti-secrecy organization said the documents were leaked by an insider and promised that it would be releasing more this week. It added that the CIA has lost control of most of its hacking malware, viruses and trojans. (The agency declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents.)
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