CIA Co-Developed 'Athena' Windows Malware With US Cyber Security Company, WikiLeaks Reveals (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Today, WikiLeaks leaked documentation about a tool called Athena. According to leaked documents, which WikiLeaks previously claimed it received from hackers and CIA insiders, Athena is an implant -- a CIA technical term for "malware" -- that can target and infect any Windows system, from Windows XP to Windows 10, Microsoft's latest OS version. Documents leaked today are dated between September 2015 and February 2016, showing that the CIA had the ability to hack Windows 10 months after its launch, despite Microsoft boasting about how hard it would be to hack its new OS. [...] The documents reveal that CIA had received help from a non-government contractor in developing the malware. The company is Siege Technologies, a cyber-security company based in New Hampshire, which was acquired on November 15, 2016, by Nehemiah Security, another US company, based in Tysons, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington and near CIA's headquarters, in a zone peppered with various military and defense contractors.

Comments

CIA Fronts

[Anonymous Coward]

"Siege Technologies, a cyber-security company based in New Hampshire, which was acquired on November 15, 2016, by Nehemiah Security, another US company, based in Tysons, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington and near CIA's headquarters, in a zone peppered with various military and defense contractors."

Many of which are CIA front companies. Essentially the CIA contracts with companies it controls moving the money away from any elected meddling - aka oversight. The money is then used to fund "special projects" that don't need to be reported to anyone.

Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA

[The Real Dr John]

No, everyone is responsible. All the spy agencies are involved, and corporations are clearly involved. It was done under Bush/Cheney and Obama, and so far the American public has failed to complain enough, and the media have failed their role as watchdogs. It is everybody's fault. If people don't start complaining a lot more to their representatives, and vote in more honest representatives, it will only get worse.

Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA

[The Real Dr John]

And by the way, Obama is not the left. He may be the center-right, but he has nothing to do with the Bernie Left. The spy agencies are all right wing. The military is right wing, the wars are done by right wing Democrats and Republicans colluding together. The people least responsible for the spying and the wars are all those lefty anti-war and-spying protesters. But I still maintain that just about everyone is to blame, including the public who barely pays attention to anything other than their phone.

Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA

[Anonymous Coward]

The "resistance" from the left is identical to all the pop-up Communist groups the CIA funded in South America. Everything hit topic from the intersectional corner of bad ideas is designed to form rifts in the community to prevent a unified voter base. You can't occupy wallstreet when part of the crowd calls you racist for daring to speak for them, and the entire movement has to spend all their time checking their privilege.

Re:Cool

[WolfgangVL]

I've seen firsthand the enemy your talking about, and the great majority of them that *I* came into contact with could not even read their own language, let alone operate sophisticated computer systems. While I'm sure there are upper echelons that DO leverage technology in a way that would justify tools such as these, I doubt they are rocking Samsung smart TVs, ordering takeout on the latest iphone, or operating stable and reliably connected windows based personal computers.

Your argument has been employed in the defense of terrible weapons and processes for centuries. Sometimes, it's correct as much as it's ugly. Other times, it's just mouth frothing for more powers/power/abilities, and justification for the boot that grinds.

The ability to (maybe) compromise the enemy commanders smartphone via the mobileapps he's using, or own his smart TV for surveillance purposes is next to useless against the real high value targets. On the flip side, these tools are incredibly effective for illegal use against our own people, our allies, and other western cultures. Add the risk of catastrophic damage to systems throughout the world being incredibly high when these tools inevitably leak to the public and the scale starts to tip to the side of WTF-land.

If these tools had been developed on Mars, and stored on the moon, they would still be used against innocents, and leaked to the public eventually.

Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.