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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Dominic Lipinski PA Wire/PA Images

WikiLeaks releases over 8,000 documents 'hacked from CIA'

The files appear to show the CIA wanted to subvert software products and use them as surveillance devices.

WIKILEAKS HAS PUBLISHED thousands of documents purportedly taken from the Central Intelligence Agency’s Center for Cyber Intelligence.

The dramatic release appears to provide an eye-opening look at the intimate details of the USA’s cyber espionage toolkit.

The dump of more than 8,000 documents could not immediately be authenticated and the CIA declined to comment, but WikiLeaks has a long track record of releasing top secret government documents. Experts who’ve started to sift through the material said it appears legitimate — and that the release was almost certain to shake the CIA.

“There’s no question that there’s a fire drill going on right now,” Jake Williams, a security expert with Georgia-based Rendition Infosec, said. “It wouldn’t surprise me that there are people changing careers — and ending careers — as we speak.”

Bob Ayers, a retired US intelligence official currently working as a security analyst, agreed, saying the release was “real bad” for the agency.

If the authenticity of the dump is officially confirmed, it would represent yet another catastrophic breach for the US intelligence community at the hands of WikiLeaks and its allies, which have repeatedly humbled Washington with the mass release of classified material, including hundreds of thousands of documents from the State Department and the Pentagon.

Improvised surveillance devices

WikiLeaks, which had been dropping cryptic hints about the release for a month, said in a lengthy statement the CIA had “recently” lost control of a massive arsenal of CIA hacking tools as well as associated documentation. The radical transparency organisation said that “the archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorised manner” and that one of them “provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive”.

Jonathan Liu, a spokesman for the CIA, said: “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”

Williams, who has experience dealing with government hackers, said the voluminous files’ extensive references to operation security meant they were almost certainly government-backed.

“I can’t fathom anyone fabricated that amount of operational security concern,” he said. “It rings true to me.”

The only people who are having that conversation are people who are engaging in nation-state-level hacking.

The documents cover a range of topics, including what appeared to be a discussion about how to compromise smart televisions and turn them into improvised surveillance devices.

WikiLeaks said the leaked data also included details on the agency’s efforts to subvert American software products and smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows.

A “substantial library” of digital espionage techniques borrowed from Russia and other countries is in the data as well, WikiLeaks said.

Ayers noted that WikiLeaks has promised to release more CIA documents, saying today’s publication is just “the first full part of the series”.

“The damage right now is relatively high-level,” he said. “(But) the potential for really detailed damage will come in the following releases.”

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108 Comments
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    Mute Andrea Rock Massey
    Favourite Andrea Rock Massey
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    Nov 18th 2015, 5:02 PM

    Oh my God, that is just awful, I hope she makes a full recovery. What a dreadful journey for any parent to make.

    789
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    Mute Joe Traynor
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    Nov 18th 2015, 5:20 PM

    Conveyors are extremely dangerous I know people who have lost limbs and been killed by them, she is very lucky to be alive once you are caught by it either your clothing or hair gives way or you get pulled in, hope she makes a full recovery.

    364
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    Mute PaulOD
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    Nov 18th 2015, 5:05 PM

    Poor girl

    254
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    Mute Peter Murray
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    Nov 18th 2015, 6:26 PM

    God love her, sounds awful

    184
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    Mute Range Rover P38
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    Nov 18th 2015, 6:15 PM

    Get well soon. poor girl

    164
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    Mute Cindy Ormiston
    Favourite Cindy Ormiston
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    Nov 18th 2015, 9:33 PM

    Such a pity the author had to refer to this poor girl by just her surname, in his comment he says “Dunnes parents have flown out to Australia to be with her”…… Such a lack of respect for her as she was named Annie at birth… Hope Annie makes a full recovery.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:26 PM

    In most reports people are referred to by their surname not their forename, they could have used Miss though.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
    Favourite Neal Ireland Hello
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:55 PM

    Cindy, congratulations in advance on winning Nitpicker of the Year 2015!

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    Mute Adrian De Cléir
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    Nov 19th 2015, 4:57 AM

    Cindy, I’m sure if the family are reading this they will be appreciating your valuable input.

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    Mute Chauncey Gardiner
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    Nov 18th 2015, 7:53 PM

    What an horrific, freak accident! Sincere hopes for a full recovery.

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    Mute patrick gilmartin
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    Nov 19th 2015, 1:39 AM

    Why would 5 people give the thumbs down or dislike for the comment .am I missing something ?

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    Mute Will
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    Nov 19th 2015, 6:38 PM

    Trolls patrick… theres no escaping the trolls… some people just want to watch the world burn

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    Mute Alkaline
    Favourite Alkaline
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    Nov 18th 2015, 7:06 PM

    Scrubbed in on one those scalp transplants in the past. It’s a gore fest but recoverable. Good luck to her.

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    Mute molly coddled
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:49 PM

    Jesus, that’s horrific, I hope she’ll be ok.

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    Mute John J Bourke
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    Nov 18th 2015, 10:31 PM

    Who the hell is giving all the red thumbs?

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    Mute Michael Sands
    Favourite Michael Sands
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    Nov 18th 2015, 10:57 PM

    Loyal haters I think, my common number is 5 nearly in every comment. Don’t worry about it, go by the green thumbs.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:56 PM

    Cute: stop coming back to check how many thumbs you got.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:57 PM

    *Cure:

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    Mute molly coddled
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:59 PM

    I never consider them, or what colour they are Michael. I consider the comment, and/or the debate. There’s some that do though and that’s sad.

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    Mute molly coddled
    Favourite molly coddled
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    Nov 19th 2015, 12:03 AM

    @Neal, cute is better :).

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Nov 19th 2015, 11:33 PM

    Molly, you see the red thumbs up even on people who send out sympathy comments to tragic stories and you wonder what is wrong with some people. I never go by the red myself as I am happy just to have 1 green thumb, reds just means they did bother to read it lol.
    Just telling John not to worry about the red thumbs, once you mention the red thumbs then they build up. Once you say anything negative about yourself in public then they are out for their pound of flesh, here is no different but it is a dark sense I have as well lol.

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    Mute Alison Lawlor
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    Nov 19th 2015, 3:09 AM

    Hope she has a speedy recovery, last thing you want over here. Hope her employer had insurance too. God speed

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    Mute Mark Damme
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:49 PM

    Why do these beautiful people have to go away for work… Get well soon.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
    Favourite Neal Ireland Hello
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    Nov 18th 2015, 11:57 PM

    Apparently they don’t have enough ugly people to fill these positions.

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    Mute Ian Cadogan
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    Nov 19th 2015, 8:34 AM

    That’s true, send all the ugly one’s.

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    Mute Antoinette O' Sullivan
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    Nov 19th 2015, 11:46 AM

    That’s horrific. I did my farming on the same farm as where it happened. Poor girl, I hope she has a speedy recovery.

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    Mute Pat Gorman
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    Nov 19th 2015, 9:36 AM

    I only thumb down people who complain about thumb downs,or thumbs down,or thumbs downs.
    Thumber downers obviously do their thumbing downing just for the schadenfreude of annoying the people who don’t like thumb downs (or should that be “thumbs down”?)
    I’ll start the ball rolling by giving myself a thumbs down for this comment.

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    Mute Will
    Favourite Will
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    Nov 19th 2015, 6:40 PM

    Kudos for use of shadenfreude

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