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

Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an American, and I think this is cool. I'm GLAD our intelligence agencies have good tools available when they need them. There are a lot of assholes out there and, while I'm sure we fit that category sometimes, we're not the ones gang raping goats and training children to chop heads off infidels. So, if this helps us kill more assholes or save more innocent lives, more power to them.

Of course, this should all be done within the confines of US law. Once our agencies are unlawfully spying on their own citizens, they're rogue. But, having these tools available doesn't prima facie mean they will be used unlawfully.