WikiLeaks says it releases files on CIA cyber spying tools

Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance, an Irvine, California, cyber security firm, said that one of the most significant disclosures shows how CIA hackers cover their tracks by leaving electronic trails suggesting they are from Russia, China and Iran rather than the United States.

Other revelations show how the CIA took advantage of vulnerabilities that are known, if not widely publicized.

In one case, the documents say, US and British personnel,under a program known as Weeping Angel, developed ways to takeover a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room.

The CIA and White House declined comment. "We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents," CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu said in a statement.

Google declined to comment on the purported hacking of its Android platform, but said it was investigating the matter.

Snowden on Twitter said the files amount to the first public evidence that the US government secretly buys software toexploit technology, referring to a table published by WikiLeaks that appeared to list various Apple iOS flaws purchased by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Apple Inc did not respond to a request for comment.

The documents refer to means for accessing phones directlyin order to catch messages before they are protected byend-to-end encryption tools like Signal.

Signal inventor Moxie Marlinspike said he took that as"confirmation that what we’re doing is working." Signal and thelike are "pushing intelligence agencies from a world ofundetectable mass surveillance to a world where they have to useexpensive, high-risk, extremely targeted attacks."

Reuters