As of early March, Wikileaks released thousands of documents and pages of information on softwares, tools, programs, and techniques that the CIA utilizes in order to crack into smartphones, computers, and “smart-TV’s” with Internet connected in them called “Vault 7.” Should we be concerned?
The Wikileaks release, Vault 7, included documents and information that ranges from 7,181 webpages with 943 attachments of classified CIA material (including tools, softwares, and other ways the CIA has been able to hack into our lives). According to the article released by Wikileaks, the CIA was able to infiltrate global markets such as Iphone and Android products through popular apps such as Whatsapp and Telegram, in order to spy on your daily conversations. One specific example provided by Wikileaks was the infiltration in Samsung’s “smart TVs”. According to Wikileaks, an embedded device developed by the CIA called ‘Weeping Angel’ is able to place the TV in a mode called ‘Fake-Off’, where the user might turn off the television, the TV looks like it’s off, and the user will think it is completely off, yet it is still secretly on and recording every conversation. These conversations are recorded, and then sent over via Internet to a CIA server. Scary, right?
Another way the CIA is able to hack into our daily lives and our daily conversations is through our smartphones. The CIA’s Mobile Device Branch (MDB) is able to hack and infect smartphones and send daily conversations, locations, text messages, and even trigger the smartphone’s camera and microphone tools. Other programs, such as Wrecking Crew, Elder Piggy, and even McNugget (shout out to McDonald’s) are able to steal passwords and other valuable information from user’s via Internet Explorer on their computers. Although there is no ‘public confirmation’ that these classified documents are authentic, one government official said that they are candid, and a previous intelligence agent said the code names and charts provided by Wikileaks were real and authentic. The NY Times were able to take a statement from a CIA spokesman, Dean Boyd, who mentioned that the CIA “do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”
However, even though these tools and softwares do exist, there is no concrete evidence that these tools have been used against Americans. However, now that we know that it does exist, should we be worried? What about our privacy when it comes to our conversations and messages? According to the NY Times, the documents from Wikileaks did not mention that the CIA can break the encryption from apps such as Whatsapp and Telegram. They infiltrate the actual phone instead, where the encryption becomes irrelevant to the agency. The agency can catch messages and phone calls before it becomes encrypted and are able to record our conversations and text messages through these apps and smartphones.
Crazy, right?
So, now that we know that we can potentially be spied on by our government and authorities, what do we do? Is Big Brother watching us, and did George Orwell accurately predict the future in his novel, 1984? For starters, we need to watch our technologies and our conversations more closely now that we know the potentiality of our privacy being compromised by the government and our technologies. Wikileaks mentioned that this is just the beginning of the release, and that throughout the years, even more information will be released. For now, click here for more information about Vault 7 and click here for more information from the New York Times article.
