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WikiLeaks CIA Files: The 6 Biggest Spying Secrets Revealed By the Release of 'Vault 7' (independent.co.uk)
Earlier today, WikiLeaks unleashed a cache of thousands of files it calls "Year Zero," which is part one of the release associated with "Vault 7." Since there are over 8,000 pages in this release, it will take some time for journalists to comb through the release. The Independent has highlighted six of the "biggest secrets and pieces of information yet to emerge from the huge dump" in their report. 1) The CIA has the ability to break into Android and iPhone handsets, and all kinds of computers. The U.S. intelligence agency has been involved in a concerted effort to write various kinds of malware to spy on just about every piece of electronic equipment that people use. That includes iPhones, Androids and computers running Windows, macOS and Linux.
2) Doing so would make apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp entirely insecure. Encrypted messaging apps are only as secure as the devices they are used on -- if an operating system is compromised, then the messages can be read before they are encrypted and sent to the other user(s).
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. One of the most eye-catching programs detailed in the documents is "Weeping Angel." That allows intelligence agencies to install special software that allows TVs to be turned into listening devices -- so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on.
4) The agency explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing "nearly undetectable assassinations." Many of the documents reference tools that appear to have dangerous and unknown uses. One file, for instance, shows that the CIA was looking into ways of remotely controlling cars and vans by hacking into them.
5) The CIA hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments. Such bugs were found in the biggest consumer electronics in the world, including phones and computers made Apple, Google and Microsoft. But those companies didn't get the chance to fix those exploits because the agency kept them secret in order to keep using them, the documents suggest.
6) More information is coming. The documents have still not been looked through entirely. There are 8,378 pages of files, some of which have already been analyzed but many of which haven't. And that's not to mention the other sets of documents that are coming. The "Year Zero" leaks are just the first in a series of "Vault 7" dumps, Julian Assange said. You can view the Vault 7 Part 1 'Year Zero' release here via WikiLeaks. The Intercept has an in-depth report focusing on how the "CIA Could Turn Smart TVs Into Listening Devices."
2) Doing so would make apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp entirely insecure. Encrypted messaging apps are only as secure as the devices they are used on -- if an operating system is compromised, then the messages can be read before they are encrypted and sent to the other user(s).
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. One of the most eye-catching programs detailed in the documents is "Weeping Angel." That allows intelligence agencies to install special software that allows TVs to be turned into listening devices -- so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on.
4) The agency explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing "nearly undetectable assassinations." Many of the documents reference tools that appear to have dangerous and unknown uses. One file, for instance, shows that the CIA was looking into ways of remotely controlling cars and vans by hacking into them.
5) The CIA hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments. Such bugs were found in the biggest consumer electronics in the world, including phones and computers made Apple, Google and Microsoft. But those companies didn't get the chance to fix those exploits because the agency kept them secret in order to keep using them, the documents suggest.
6) More information is coming. The documents have still not been looked through entirely. There are 8,378 pages of files, some of which have already been analyzed but many of which haven't. And that's not to mention the other sets of documents that are coming. The "Year Zero" leaks are just the first in a series of "Vault 7" dumps, Julian Assange said. You can view the Vault 7 Part 1 'Year Zero' release here via WikiLeaks. The Intercept has an in-depth report focusing on how the "CIA Could Turn Smart TVs Into Listening Devices."
why no trust-busting. why no common carrier. why no nothing which would prevent "wire-tapping".
There is no surprise...
When I got my TV I bypassed the Mic and am feeding it "never gonna give you up" in a continuous loop. Glad my effort was not wasted.
Hide in your basement, cut the phone, cable and Internet lines and stay there for the rest of your life.
is anyone? Seriously?
I just want to see if they have REAL dirt on Trump or not in regards to the Russians.
WikiLeaks accidentally posted Donald Trump's dick pic!
I guess that means Julian Assange is a vegetarian!
But it kind of sounds like "all of the theoretical vulnerabilities really are being attacked by state-sponsored hackers," which probably isn't so shocking around these parts.
1) The CIA has the ability to break into Android and iPhone handsets, and all kinds of computers.
That's part of the spying thing and has been for at least the last 2-3 decades.
2) Doing so would make apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp entirely insecure.
Logically follows.
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them.
Smart device insecure; news at 11.
4) The agency explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing "nearly undetectable assassinations."
Explored and...? That's it? Okay.
5) The CIA hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments.
Author doesn't know what an 0-day is good for.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
I'll bet serious money this enrages Trump and he threatens to arrest and detain Assange.
Point 3 is just dropping yet another reason on top of the large pile of reasons why I'll never ever buy a 'Smart TV'.
Technology was, is and will always be vulnerable.
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. One of the most eye-catching programs detailed in the documents is "Weeping Angel." That allows intelligence agencies to install special software that allows TVs to be turned into listening devices -- so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on.
I'm pretty good with Windows and Linux desktops... there are steps I can take to check for spyware/malware and deal with them if found.
But my Samsung TV, I haven't the foggiest idea. I don't know how to type commands into it or even what kind of an OS it runs.
The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. They get into your bank statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls... Every wire, every airwave. The more technology used, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you. It's a brave new world out there. At least it'd better be.
As great as the internet's free flow of information has been for the average human, there is another entity that has benefited even more...
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Fighting bigotry with bigotry solid plan
There are already quite a few tools in computational journalism to automate the early assessment of a large data dump.
What do Journalists do with Documents?
C+J 2016: Documents, Data Mining and Discovery
As with all things, I'm sure the 20-80 rule applies.
I'm safe. Turns out buying a Windows Phone was a good choice after all.
Wikileaks jumped the shark.
If you didn't know this kind of thing was going on, you weren't paying attention. The job of the intelligence agencies is to... gather intelligence, particularly the kind that people don't want collected and kill foreign enemies covertly. This is why they are not allowed to act inside the US. Every other intelligence agency on the planet does exactly the same thing. If you think otherwise you are living in a fantasy land bubble.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
This makes open hardware more imperative. Are the operating system flaws all software, or are they hardware? Or firmware? If the latter two, are they flaws or cooperative effort by the manufacturers?
I don't have time to read the entire thing, so I'm wondering what part of my Linux installations are being exploited. FOSS and FOSH are the only real digital defenses we have against our governments, as they are our only avenues of control.
for my Amiga 3000 desktop!
Sure his tweets about having been spied upon by Obama on Saturday (?) sounded like the usual tinfoil hattery, but now I am starting to think that there may be a grain of truth in it.
He's praised Assange, and Assange has praised him, so he can't go back on that, his personality doesn't allow it. This is why Putin can attack the elections and Trump can't condemn it, because that would mean Trump admitting Trump was wrong.
I think Trump is constantly looking for targets to attack. By targets I mean people. So he fails to get an immigration law change, he attacks the 'so called' judge. His government is leaky..."Obama is spying on me". Disabled reporter asks a difficult question.... "did you see this guy, hes all nhaa nhaa nhaa". In each case, it's an ad-hominen attack against the messanger of some Trump flaw to avoid addressing the flaw itself.
So I think he will use it to attack CIA head, or FBI head, most likely Comey but maybe "Obama" again. Everything is just an opportunity for an ad-hominen attack, and as long as he's interacting with US people, then those attacks are mostly against Americans.
Anyone have a link/links to buy a decent dumb TV? and by decent I mean new this year and not some Chinese junk. Look every couple of months as the computer screen is a bit small but there's no way I'll ever run dirty old android on a TV. Not only for the spyware etc etc, but who knows when it'll stop being supported. Anyway if there are any, thanks in advance, big help.
A withered carrot? Amen Google. You rock like Slayer.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Get ready, security. It's about to rain. It shouldn't take very long for these leaks to spur waves of hacking anywhere... everywhere.
As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights"
There's a pretty practical point of view, which says that is stupid.
You shouldn't have machines that you're not in control of. Whenever you break that rule, you should minimize the powers of machines that you don't control.
Since you don't control the TV, you should leave its network disconnected and it should get its input from HDMI.
Since you can't control Netflix clients, you should pirate their shows, so that you don't have to use their client. That includes web browsers, since you can't control EME.
Pirate Netflix, or else you are pro-surveillance. Netflix can always get serious (lose DRM, so that you can use any client that you want to) if they have a problem with the loss of revenue.
"Doing so would make apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp entirely insecure" is what makes running security-minded programs on non-free, user-subjugating, always-untrustworthy, proprietary OSes a joke. People get a sense that they're safer from malware then they really are and they think they get to keep their proprietary conveniences as well. Openwashing will not help you.
I know it's a lot of work to learn new things and change your views and your behavior. I understand that software freedom is differently political than what you're encouraged to adopt, and software freedom requires you to consider more than what's listed in virtually every features & money-based ad campaign from monied proprietors. And I get that coming to terms with the consequences of software freedom runs directly contrary to believing that you don't need to think any further than what proprietors and their "open source" friends tell you to think about (because no proprietor frames their offerings in terms of the freedoms to run, inspect, share, and modify the software, hence proprietors are more likely to sanction the open source movement which eschews these values and even celebrates partnering with proprietors like Red Hat's recent uncritical commentary on Microsoft's software and Microsoft's new campaign regarding "Linux"—no mention of GNU which might bring software freedom to mind). But in the real world you need to stop trusting proprietary systems to keep you safe, respect your privacy, or other practical consequences of software freedom. Proprietary software wasn't designed to do that and therefore that software never will do that job. There is no middle ground which allows you to run proprietary software while retaining the benefits of software freedom. It's time to value software freedom for its own sake.
Even if all published software were free, exploits like these are possible because all complex software has bugs. Perfect security is not the issue. The issue is who gets to control their own computer and how we treat each other. Even after these exploits are published by WikiLeaks and people have had time to consider them and protect against their adverse effects, proprietors will still have power over users who run their proprietary software. Users won't be able to tell what other exploits are out there and therefore it will be harder to protect against them. The difference between proprietary subjugation and software freedom becomes more clear: Free software users will be able to run, inspect, improve, and share improvements with others making that software more able to prevent future attacks. But proprietary software users won't be allowed to do the due diligence they need in order to help themselves no matter how technically skilled they are or how willing to repair things they are. No computer user deserves to be treated that way. It will take a lot of work to get people to understand why they too should care about software freedom even if they're non-technical (like most computer users are). So I urge you to understand software freedom for its own sake and to try to help others understand as well.
Relatedly, the Free Software Foundation's "Respects Your Freedom" campaign has some new hardware on the list. I recommend buying some and using it, even if it's not up-to-date with the latest capabilities and seemingly expensive for what's offered. We need more people to invest in free replacements for proprietary, locked-down, user-subjugating systems. We need to make investments in our own collective future by funding the free products available today so we can have modern, highly-capable, and fully user-controllable POWER8, RISC, etc. systems which will respect the owner's control.
Digital Citizen
1. Start reading the tech news and books about past NSA, GCHQ, CIA projects over the decades.
e.g. CIA Chief: We’ll Spy On You Through Your Dishwasher (03.15.12)
https://www.wired.com/2012/03/...
Past project shape new projects in the US gov. Electronic collection is the only growth area so that is what gets funding and political support.
Collect it all is policy that can be understood by most people.
2. Work out if the NSA, CIA or any other part of the US gov think your company or work is interesting.
Is your brand in trade publications with glowing reports of encryption, advancement, new patents, funding, international support, rapid advancement in fields of tech the USA has always considered their own?
3. Are you a member of the press seeking whistleblowers or are understood to be a good person to be contracted by a gov/mil whistleblower?
4. Encryption seems to be holding as so much of it is now international and has faced open discussion rather than the junk closed efforts of the 1970's.
The US has moved from supporting junk encryption to generations of junk consumer devices, expensive professional services that give away plain text.
The crypto tests as safe and device/OS just gives away all the plain text as decrypted or entered.
5. If it is vital to your company use paper and meet without a room full of smartphones, trendy smart consumer devices, reconsider that networked TV with a mic and webcam in the conference room.
Air gap all devices and archives. Work on projects as if every network is giving data to your competitions.
6. Staff risks? The CIA knows most of the staff will use a smart phone and a company is networked to the outside world. The digital way in is national, international.
Most workers know to report any direct offers of cash to their own company or nations security services. Why? It could be a test and not reporting such contact is a huge risk.
But that same security aware staff member will walk in with a smart phone and connect all networks to the internet for productivity.
Secure your networks, hide your advanced work, tell staff to report any new friends, unexpected offers of cash.
Big brand staff, academics, security researches will say crypto is safe, that the device is fixed, the OS is trustworthy, just like they did for decades.
Smart phones and other US brands will be reported as been secured again. Then crypto will then be weakened. Once the faulty crypto is discovered the devices hardware/OS will leak plain text again but the crypto will work.
The only constant over the years is the device will give up all data to the clandestine services.
Stop using a smart phone for work that should be kept secure and all such issues stop over the decades.
7. If none of that is possible, flood your networks that face the internet with junk files and reports. Amazing alpha, beta, internal testing files, projects. Interesting project names, connections with governments, how other brands projects are generations behind.
Have a few workers just churn out the most amazing projects that link to or hint at other files that are secure. Reports to management of amazing results on projects that are pure fiction.
Create other front companies, use the cloud and ensure their networked computers are more interesting than any real work been done.
8. Only hire local staff and ensure they report issues, contact attempts, cash offers.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
the fbi nsa and cia do far more harm to earth then allllllllll the others combined
President Trump will be able to spy on Obama for a change. I just hope Barron doesn't accidentally uncover a second Hillary Sex Tape - that could scar the poor little guy for life.
WikiLeaks accidentally posted Donald Trump's dick pic!
Ugh. Imagine what it smells like. My first thought is "poor Ivanka."
Food for thought: Michael Hastings was apparently investigating the C.I.A. when he died in what sounds like a suspicious car crash. Officially, foul-play was ruled out. Quote from Wikipedia: "Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard A. Clarke said that what is known about the crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack". He was quoted as saying "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers — including the United States — know how to remotely seize control of a car. So if there were a cyber attack on [Hastings'] car — and I'm not saying there was, I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."" (This quote is from 2013.) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Was this around 1984 or so?
Well before that, around the time that Atlas Shrugged.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/...
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/...
Can someone give us the Cliff Notes on what we need to sudo rm -rf ??? Is it just routers being targeted...?
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
Wow. There isn't a single thing listed there that wasn't known.
I've been going over this most all day (I'm retired, so I got fuck-all else to do on a rainy day).
From what I can tell, the biggest takeaway is that a hacked phone is not secure. Encryption is still OK, and Signal and WhatsApp are still secure as far as we can tell. Everything else has already been known. Also, it's a good idea when vendors patch vulnerabilities, apparently. Who knew?
EFF has written some interesting stuff about Vault7 today, on their webpage and Twitter account.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
"The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them."
And that's just one reason I'll never own a "smart" TV.
I remember people laughing at the idea that anyone could or would covertly turn on the mic in your TV, but who's laughing now?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
The Weeping Angels are a Dr. Who monster.
Just don't blink.
Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin's Jeep Cherokee rolled back into him and killed him myseriously... Isn't the Jeep the one with the electronic transmission knob? Wasn't the Jeep remotely controlled years ago exposing how easy it is to hack via OnStar? Was Anton really *just* an actor or also a covert Russian spy killed by the CIA via remote control of his Jeep or payback for the election/Crimea... or the latter, Fiat/Chrysler makes Sh($ty vehicles?
CIA testing an exploit? Wouldn't have considered that before.
I plugged a laptop into a DVI port on our TV, got a wireless $10 mini-keyboard with integrated touchpad off of eBay, cranked up the icon and font sizes a bit I plugged a laptop into a DVI port on our TV, got a wireless $10 mini-keyboard with integrated touchpad off of eBay, cranked up the icon and font sizes a bit and it's worked out surprisingly well. It's much quicker to use than the 'smart' Bluray player we were previously using, and it can do a lot more... and it's running Qubes OS. Ain't no drive-by hacker getting in there.
For the slightly less tenacious people who just want something approaching regular desktop Linux level security and a simpler interface, there's Myth TV. Which has been out for fifteen years. And there's also Kodi, which even non-technical people have heard of and apparently love.
Addressing just the geeks in the audience: I don't understand the appeal of Roku and smart TVs the like, I really don't. They're slow. The remote-based UI is cumbersome as hell. They're vulnerable. They're un-upgradable. And for the most part they're no cheaper than an old laptop off of Craigslist that has HDMI or DVI out. I sort of suspect that most people simply have a strong psychological need to separate their leisure from their work, and it's primarily for that reason that they prefer a completely different device with a different UI.
Trump leaked this to get revenge on those fucks eavesdropping on him. MAGA!!
It's more sinister than that.
Consider a one year old child today who may grow up to be a politician, high-level businessman, civil servant, inventor, etc.
That child is going to grow up with his communications logged, messages recorded, phone conversations intercepted, and what's more all his porn interests, mistakes in teenage years, drug taking, cheating, law breaking, foolish racist or bigoted or cruel utterances, web searches, fucking everything.
Then when they're making something of themselves they get a knock at the door and someone comes in with a big file.
The end consequence of this project means that the intelligence agencies will become our permanent rulers. Not even democracy can overturn them because democracy's players, our politicians, have and do make mistakes, mistakes which are captured by the agencies. And any revolution would be thwarted before it even began.
Buying a "smart" car? Nope.
Has anyone been able to download the torrent? I tried and it hasn't been working.
A spy agency has tools they use to spy on people?
Make you wonder if they also have guns and drones
wikileaks is run by Russian intelligence.
As for the supposed leaks.. none of it seems remotely damaging. It's just a distraction from Trump's insanity and his ties to Russia.
our spy masters are evil, pure evil, and there's no way we can know who they turn they evilness to. US, 'them', or combo of both.
I wish all the spy agencies were disbanded. no one should have this kind of power, no one! prisoner experiment (stanford) demonstrates that no human should have that kind of unchecked power.
who watches the watchers?
NO ONE.
or, no one we can trust.
man, this is sick shit. a US agency that spends its time trying to create malware and thrust it upon - ALL OF US.
now, even this NEWS cannot be trusted. nothing can be trusted, I guess is the take-away from all this.
vendors: how much 'ball' are THEY playing, btw? I can't believe the 3 letter agencies do all this entirely on their own. they have moles in each of the key companies. and that makes things even worse, in fact.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
What is it with the quality of reporting now?
No, this does NOT make signal, etc completely insecure - this means they need to specifically target one end of the conversation, before
it happens - why is always likely to be possible.
What is DOES NOT mean is that they can auto-vacuum up all the conversations for later 'analysis', as they can do with just about every
other form of internet base communication. THAT is a critical difference. What it means is when you get on the wrong side of an ever
expanding range of government bureaucrats, they can trawl through less of your life to look for a suitable 'punishment'.
Of course they would LOVE everyone to think encrypted communication is useless, because they more people wouldn't bother......
Bears a close resemblance to a false flag reporters.....
And no, I dont need to post that AC, because being sensible about your personal communications is sensible, not illegal.
Not sure how many watched, but maybe we are living in a Person of Interest (TV show) world after all. That show basically assumed that the government could do pretty much all that has been outlined so far.
My flip phone that is off except when I need to use it, seems like a good idea after all.
Now the cyber arms race really begins. The other countries of the world now have access to this, and can use this to infiltrate the US government or companies easier. What if this actually allows nukes somewhere to be hacked, or really take down a countries systems. The world is a much more dangerous place right now. This seems like the equivalent of releasing the plans to the atom bomb in 1945 while the war was till on. The bad hackers will be using this as soon as possible to break in and still money/information. Companies will be scrambling to learn fix software. What about all the older software running devices that likely won't be patched? We thought there were holes there, but it may now be far worse than previously thought.
And apparently there will be more released.
It makes me wonder why the recent revelations have been about US cyber espionage efforts. Nothing about Uncle Vlad's hacker groups, fancy bear / cozy bear / funny hair bear / gay bear boys in flaming bondage bear, although that last one may have been a group I heard at SxSW. In any case, maybe the US isn't so hot at vetting it's people, or Kislyak knows how to turn people. Maybe the US can't get the goods on other cyber espionage groups. Or maybe they have and they ain't sayin nothin.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Do you see now why truth matters?
1) The CIA has the ability to break into Android and iPhone handsets, and all kinds of computers.
It's basically, if it's Internet connected, it's probably vulnerable to some degree. But I wanna see the CIA remotely invading my unconnected Windows 7 PC used for maintenance purposes. Unless they get a warrant and physically get to my computer, they can't.
2) Doing so would make apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp entirely insecure.
Wrong. Encryption is used on these device to protect messages DURING transit and it's not only from the CIA or for criminal purposes. So yeah, it's still secure if you are not being actively targeted by the CIA, and if you keep your devices outside the reach of malicious actors.
3) The CIA could use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them.
This just adds up to not buying smart TVs at all, or at least don't connect them to the Internet. Several big brands like Samsung, LG, Vizio among others have been caught red handed harvesting information using smart TV functions for all sorts of purposes, so this recommendation came before the CIA papers leak.
It might not have shown up in papers just yet, but this also applies to your IoT devices and whatnot. Do NOT get a Google Home, Alexa or whatever always listening device you can avoid it. Your privacy will be put at risk as potentially your security also will.
4) The agency explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing "nearly undetectable assassinations."
Hackers are also into this, and it'll remain an issue as long as car manufacturers continue to ignore major security flaws in their systems. Just so people know, most cars these days are wholly insecure. Hacking could come with something hard to accomplish like connecting a device into the electronic diagnostic systems on you car, needing physical access, to shoving malware on your Android based car system and taking control remotely from there. Unfortunately, it's one of those cases where a fatality will need to happen for car manufacturers to be blasted for malpractice and change their ways.
5) The CIA hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments.
This, along with several other cases like the iPhone thing and the more recent of a pedophile being released because a government agency didn't want to release the tools used for his arrest to the public just shows how governmental agencies are not focused on security and worries on the public, they are focused on power. This is the core issue with NSA, CIA, FBI and other public agencies promoting erosion or privacy: they want the power to spy on everyone and anyone, which gives them control to do anything.
All of the revelations and the spying programs governmental agencies have reveals one big problem in itself: the US will soon become a country where something like Watergate, or something more recent like the Snowden leaks, could never happen. How long do people think that an empowered state that is able to spy on everyone including journalists (which btw, the current government sees as "the enemy") will use these tools to actively persecute, blackmail and shut up anyone who has something negative to say about the administration? You are basically diving into a well disguised totalitarian regime. And with morons currently running the country it's going to be very hard to convince them that these powers have nothing to do with making police work easier, or going after terrorists, and all to do with these agencies having enough power to do just about everything they want.
There already have been plenty of reports on police mishandling public cameras and using tools for stuff like stalking people, going after ex-girlfriends and stuff like that. Going from there to actively blackmailing people, using the information collected for their own profit, all the way into covering scandals and shutting off corruption case investigations is not a joke. Yes, no one is interested in your boring life and your boring messages or e-mails, but there is a reason why privacy is the cornerstone of democracies. If you don't fight for it and lose, the consequences will come crashing down soon enough, and then there's nothing you can do anymore.
The Internet itself is a flood of useless shitposting. You don't need to do anything to make ordinary intelligence efforts over complete data retention largely worthless.
The only exception is if you're planning on being important enough to blackmail.
Are you? Are you really? No, you're not. You're sitting here on Slashdot. You aren't important enough to Harry Potter into a tractor trailer.
Not you, personally.
But it's easily thwarted. Little Johnny the Candidate for Senator likes to dress up as a squirrel and fuck dudes on the weekends? Who the fuck cares.
Little Suzie for Sheriff dropped some E and hugged the shit out of everybody? Who the fuck cares.
Spoopy spooks would be rendered powerless if we all grew the fuck up.
But we won't, and we'll still end up with the government we deserve.
Every time this thing happens you should be thinking how you can stop it. The lazy in us tends to get the best of most. But for the few who really are concerned about these issues you need to start working on migrating to be with others who think like you do and are working on fighting this. The Free State Project is based on the idea that with enough people moving to a small state you only need a minority of active liberty-minded participants to overwhelm the draconian statists. The reality is we're making progress in New Hampshire and have only gotten about 10% thus far of the participants here who've signed up to move within 5 years to move. Fortunately 10s of thousands are in the progress of migrating and we're seeing new people every day.
Do you know whose behind EOMA68? It's ThinkPenguin. Where is ThinkPenguin? New Hampshire. What is EOMA68? EOMA68 is a modular computing standard aimed at reducing the cost of developing 100% free software user controlled devices. While in and of itself that isn't enough to fight big brother- but we can't do it when we aren't in control of our devices and this is the start of a technical solution. At the same time we need a political solution to curtail and revert laws curtailing our civil liberties. And for that there are lots of people here working at the state level to do that. We have successfully made progress. New Hampshire no longer requires a permit to conceal carry and didn't require it for open carry. New Hampshire doesn't require car insurance (still a driver has liability- but its up to them to make good on an injury/accident), doesn't require wearing of seat belts, doesn't have a general purpose sales tax, has low property taxes relative to many more Orwellian states (ie MA, NJ, NY, CA, etc). We've been one of the few hold outs on Secure Driver's Licenses. Has the greatest uptake in Bitcoin adoption (especially at the local level- ie local stores taking it, Keene, NH outnumbers San Francisco per captia, etc), we're fighting drivers licenses / vehicular registration, we won against state harassment and arrest of activists actively going out and routinely video recording police/government officials, among many other things. We are winning the fight to stop and even undo crypto currency regulation (and possibly even more than that- certain financial regulations).
Im not denying the CIA wants to do all these 6 points, and perhaps it has limited abilities to do so, but their true abilities are nothing like what the text appears to claim - its a complete exaggeration to "scare" people into thinking they are being watched.
If any of these 6 were true, how did 9/11 happen ? The pilots must have discussed their plans etc in front of a tv and so on. I guess this coul dbe explained with they dont have enough computing resources to monitor everything, but if thats true then the rest is bullshit and irrelevant..no point having cmaeras if no one is watching...
Any malware on FreeBSD?
year0/vault7/cms/page_13205694.html
User #1179751 is the author.
In the photos for creating git repos and workflow, one of the source code screens was not redacted, and in the editor it says "My name is Keith, and I created this exercise".
Then later on they redact the same user ID when it's mentioned new people must add him to pull requests.....
Industrial Theft was then discovered on this page.... year0/vault7/cms/page_2621828.html
"In the course of analyzing a commercial program for a requirement, Umbrage discovered that this commercial program utilized this technique in their licensing checks to prevent a debugger from starting the program, or attaching to a running instance of the program. The following example is a rough implementation of the strategy used:
This technique was first discovered by Umbrage while analyzing a commercial tool called FineReader."
I think I'll email FineReader and let them know so they can file suit.
This is quite fun.
If you have your TV connected to the Internet in 2017 with any expectation of privacy you have the intelligence of a tuna casserole.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
5) The CIA hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments. Such bugs were found in the biggest consumer electronics in the world, including phones and computers made Apple, Google and Microsoft. But those companies didn't get the chance to fix those exploits because the agency kept them secret in order to keep using them, the documents suggest.
Does that not display a high degree of hubris? I'd say that if a government agency discovers a security flaw in something then they have to immediately assume that "hackers from other countries or governments" either already have it or will independently discover it soon. I really don't think it's something for which you have a big window of exclusive use.
Intelligence agency engages in intelligence gathering and often exploits technology to do it. That's an outrage!
I demand only intel gathering through paying people off and having them secretly record stuff or steal documents, the old fashioned way!
Fuck you and your prison culture. You're stupid racist fucks.
Oh look, a European. The student quarter you used to have good times in is now a refugee no-go zone. Enjoy.
The reason why Slashdot comments go to crap in political posts is that there are "trolls" paid by the US government to spread fear, uncertainty, doubt, overwhelming noise and disinformation, in an attempt to violate the democratic right to be informed, and any exposure of this will itself be subject to FUD, overwhelming noise and disinformation.
Unrestricted speech on the Internet was a political threat; that threat is now being actively managed on all communication channels, be it social media like Slashdot, IRC, Twitch, Playstation Network, ...
It's found in the court of public opinion. That's why we have courts that are abstracted from populist views and are compelled to examine the evidence in a case tried by peers. The court of public opinion has been responsible for many massacres.
Rule of law is western society's greatest achievement.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
GP's bigotry is a moral counterweight to the US's moral abuses, and so is perfectly justified.
I'm sure the language isn't exactly right, but I imagine that's how the current crop of snowflakes sees things.
because it's full of dune-coons like you.
Are still a good idea it seems.
Devices with mics and cameras will soon be revealed to have tacit recording modes, including laptops with trickle transmission of content to hide the uploads in cahoots with major ISPs.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
> The agency explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing "nearly undetectable assassinations." Many of the documents reference tools that appear to have dangerous and unknown uses. One file, for instance, shows that the CIA was looking into ways of remotely controlling cars and vans by hacking into them.
Ad. 1.: Sales of Volvo car suddenly tripled after this news hit. China is like 8-) and Sweden think they were stupid to sell the brand.
Ad 2.: As long as the steering wheel is mechnically, servo-hydraulically or servo-electrically connected, there is no risk. In fact, law mandates the steering wheel must still work even if the servo mech fails, but the torque ("bread servo") required to turn it may be beyond the normal power of very petite females from 3500+ kilogram vehicles. On the other hand, by law hand-brake is mandated to be strong enough that it will hold the car and stall the engine even at top RPM.
Thus CIA's program may be more about future cars than existing ones? Furthermore, since USA is the most auto-mobilized country in the world, such a research would hurt "home soil of the brave" most, in case it was leaked.
(In Europe, Italy is the most carred country, but their people dislike driving long distances and there is a big railway network, including extensive HSR. In Japan there are godzillion cars, but most are tiny "keicar" ones and speed limits are quite pedestrian at just 50 to 100 km per hour. Furthermore, their people take the bullet train or planes for longer distances.
The CIA project may have most potential against Germany, where there are long unrestricted-speed stretches of Autobahn, with 200km/h being common. Note that german prestiege car makers, like BMW, Merc, Audi regulate top speed to max. 250km/h using FADEC software for the ICE bloc.
On the other hand, if germans realize USA / IL wishes them ill and put their famed engineering skills to work on an antidote, don't be suprised if one dawn shiny red-black mercury powered Vril and Thule UFOs descend from the dark side of the Moon and start to land whole battalions of Wiking anti-gravity assult tanks, over-running NY, LA and Haifa...)
Are you saying because the DOJ that wire tapped a presidential candidate during an election refused to prosecute another presidential candidate, of their choice, even though they had evidence it is proof she did nothing wrong?
So Nixon doing nothing to the people who broke into Watergate, and then covering it up was acceptable and PROOF that nothing wrong was done.
Interesting theory you have. History seems to disagree with you, along with most reasonable people.
Social constructs, such as organizations, political, business, and others, can and should be designed in a way technical systems of high availability and reliability are designed, with redundancy and embedded permanent testing, that would remove reliance on "heroic" and "leader" characters and acts, thus removing significance from any particular individual, and then character assassination attempts (or even physical removal for that matter) would be futile and inconsequential for any society-wide important purpose.
...I think the revelation that they've appropriated other security services hacking tools so they can attack a system and leave false footprints would be a bit of a bombshell.
-Styopa
Are these things real, or are they in themselves propaganda by either the CIA or another nation state?
Conceivably, these could all be real revelations. But there's just as much chance that this is either propaganda by the CIA to appear to be more in control than they are, or by another competing nation state to make the CIA *look* like they are spying on their own citizens.
The fact is that no one but they know for sure.
Now we know what caused all of those uncommanded acceleration events in Toyotas a few years ago... I wonder what CIA had to do to keep Toyota quiet once they figured it out... probably disappeared a few engineers.
I think the biggest revelation is the fact that the CIA can, indeed, hack a car and potentially assassinate the driver: http://yournewswire.com/wikile...
Interestingly, Michael Hastings died when his car suddenly accelerated out of control and crashed, killing him instantly. He was currently investigating the director of the CIA, John Brennan!
Coincidence???????
???
??
?
The CIA must have been thinking "how do we infiltrate every device on the planet? This onsie-twosie thing is too slow" Oh - let's leak a bunch of stuff to Wikileaks and include in it some malware. Everyone will be so distracted by the "trove of secret data" and trying it out to see what it does that they won't notice our super-secret malware getting installed.
Now whether they want everyone - or just the other "government entities" - or this PITA Assange himself - who knows.
I for one won't be diving into this leak.
If you think about the makeup of a car the only thing that can be controlled are those with electronic controls.
Which is just about everything these days. Some of the controls, and other devices are federally mandated - like anitlock brakes (which work by turning the bakes OFF in a controlled manner) and tire pressure sensors. Others are there because running a vehicle bus DRASTICALLY cuts the cost of wiring harnesses - like nearly every controllable or reporting device in the vehicle.
A few years ago I saw a proof-of-concept demonstrated at a conference. The researchers had used a flaw in a popular (with auto companies) tire pressure sensor system to achieve remote radio control of the car's vehicle bus. (CAN bus, if I recall correctly.) That let them do a bunch of stuff. Among them was disable the brakes, set the cruise control to a high speed, and make it impossible to shut off the engine or open the doors.
There are a LOT of other ways to interfere with recent vehicles' operation, and at high speed the driver doesn't have time to figure out how to work around such interference even if it's theoretically possible.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Slashdot Flashback time...
In Soviet America, TV watches you!
Too many big oil companies didn't want an anti-trust case exposing all kinds of secrets.
https://news.vice.com/article/fracking-pioneer-aubrey-mcclendon-dies-in-car-crash-a-day-after-anti-trust-indictment
*clears throat* "At this point, what difference does it make?!!"
sig: sauer
As a Trump voter I still find this funny.
Are we shocked that the CIA nerds are Doctor Who fans?
Yeah, what was it tge liberals said: Trump had no evidence. It looks like their default setting is to spy on him. But yeah.. Its the "Russians" ...
Assange. Wikileaks. Putin's puppets. You'd be wise to chose wisely just whose side it is you're on.
Justin Amash representative from Michigan(R) He opposed, SOPA & PIPA, and stands firmly for fourth amendment rights.
Unfortunately, Michigan also has Mike Rogers (R). He and Nancy Pelosi California (D) would vote for tracking chips to be placed in everyone's forehead.
When I was hacking those I would put horrific porn on them, max out the volume and crash the control services.
The CIA is being given too much credit here. Take it from a security expert. There's very little here that's surprising or concerning. Much of it isn't truly owned by the CIA in any meaningful way and is more just how the world works.
The only real concern from this that wasn't pre-existing but again predictable is that details on their hacking program came out.
Not surprising, some people today are just as ignorant about computers.
Though it scares me to think I may be ignorant about some FUTURE tech that comes out when I'm old.
Future? I feel that way about some current tech.
I tell you, I have been using computers since the TRS-80 model III in the mid 80s, and I still feel ignorant about computers some days.
During one job interview I was asked about my experience on Linux. I said I have been using it as my home system since 1999, and I ran it and tested on it at a few jobs I had over the years. The interviewer said "oh, so you're an expert?" I replied "I think that the more I use it, and the more I learn about it, the more I realize how much I don't know about it. It's always evolving. I used to build my own kernel, and compile my own packages - and I still do that on occasion because I find it interesting. I can always dig in as deep as I want to go. But no, I don't think I am an expert and I never will be."
That wasn't just an interview answer, I firmly believe that. Everything seems so much deeper today. The IT industry has grown so much. Cryptography, mobile, security, hacks, viruses/malware, gaming, containers, cloud, GPUs, etc etc. The industry has really matured in the last 25 years, which really is a short time compared to other industries, and it permeates so much. There is no doubt in my mind that I will continue to slip away from understanding it all.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Indeed, Europe, the continent that gave us enlightenment, the industrial revolution, marxism, world war i, world war ii, imperialism, etc. Not exactly a group to emulate really. Now the seeds of WWIII are being sown there.
that the main reason the government is turning into Big Brother is because...
Because it's in the best interest of any coercive authority to have complete control over its subject class, and in modern times, that means ubiquitous surveillance. "The people" have nothing to do with it. This is the simple, inevitable nature of coercive authority.
Secondly, please stop using the term "big brother". It implies that underneath the spying, oppression, and injustice, government is really on your side. There's only one appropriate response to that: "LOL".
The US was able to directly connect and talk to the cell phones of the commanders of Hussein's army and convinced them to move out of the way rather than fight. That hack saved many lives (mostly Iraqi). Yes, that technology can be abused, but we often forget why we developed it in the first place.
You will have to have one clean room with nothing in it, and run it at a temperature at 98.6 Fahrenheit to hide infra-red?
Did they assassinate Paul Walker????
enlightenment, the industrial revolution
I give up, what was wrong with The Enlightenment? And while The Industrial Revolution definitely messed things up in some respects, we do have the whole of modern life to thank it for.
Nothing. All I'm saying is that some really good things, like enlightenment and the industrial revolution came out of Europe - just like the inquision, marxism, WWI, WWII, and so on. I was just kind of typing 'stream of consciousness' pointing out subtly that while some good stuff came from there - the largest mass murders in history did, too.
"so that even when they appear to be switched off, they're actually on."
1984 confirmed.
So, who's up for watching Will Smith and Gene Hackman in "Enemy of the State" this weekend?
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.