The majority of the world’s smartphones have been “weaponized,” according to WikiLeaks, which revealed in its latest leak that the CIA went to extreme measures to utilize the Android OS for spying.
Google’s Android operating system, used in 85 percent of the world’s smart phones, including Samsung and Sony, was found to have 24 ‘zero days’ – the code name used by the CIA to identify and exploit vulnerabilities for the purpose of secretly collecting data on individuals.
The techniques allow the CIA to access data from social messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Weibo and Clockman before encryption, according to WikiLeaks.
Both audio and message data were vulnerable to the exploit through the CIA’s exploitation of gaps in the OS.
WikiLeaks' #Vault7 reveals numerous CIA 'zero day' vulnerabilities in Android phones https://t.co/yHg7AtX5gg pic.twitter.com/g6xpPYly9T
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
WikiLeaks claims the source of their latest release acted to create a public debate about the “security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”
The leak revealed details of massive surveillance by the CIA, including ‘Weeping Angel’ – a surveillance technique which infiltrates smart TVs, transforming them into microphones.
#CIA hid ability to #hack smart phones and TVs worldwide from makers, despite #Obama pledge to reveal https://t.co/K7wFTdlC82 #Vault7
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 7, 2017
In one of the documents, users of antivirus software Comodo, who did not install a flawed upgrade, were described as “paranoid bastards.”
The CIA appear to be aware that version 6.X of the software isn’t as good as its predecessor, which they described as a “a colossal pain in the posterior.”
“Comodo’s user base, paranoid bastards that they are, has apparently caught wind of this and lots of them haven’t upgraded to 6.X. Kind of a shame, cuz this is a hole you could drive a very large wheeled freight carrying vehicle through,” the document reads.
https://www.rt.com/news/379775-cia-weaponized-85pc-worlds-smartphones/
*** Google’s Android operating system, used in 85 percent of the world’s smart phones, including Samsung and Sony, was found to have 24 ‘zero days’ – the code name used by the CIA to identify and exploit vulnerabilities for the purpose of secretly collecting data on individuals. ***
What I’d like to know is how much the phone and/or software manufacturers knew about the CIA’s activities. If the manufacturers did know, then they should be boycotted (at the very least).
If the manufacturers didn’t know, then the CIA or its proxies merely found holes in the security and exploited them. If this is the case, then I don’t think the phones could be truly considered “weaponized.” But that’s just semantics. The end result is the same: they have a backdoor to your phone.
*** “Comodo’s user base, paranoid bastards that they are, has apparently caught wind of this and lots of them haven’t upgraded to 6.X. Kind of a shame, cuz this is a hole you could drive a very large wheeled freight carrying vehicle through,” the document reads. ***
Apparently someone at the CIA isn’t bright enough to understand what the word “paranoid” means. It makes no sense to call someone “paranoid” about privacy when you’re actually proving his fears to be entirely well-grounded.
That’s a minor example of stupidity. What was REALLY stupid was the way organizations like the CIA and NSA thought they could keep these activities secret indefinitely.
If the pieces of dogsh!t had limited themselves to spying on foreign governments, strictly for national security purposes, then today they wouldn’t need to worry so much about leaks, because no one on the inside would have felt pangs of guilt. But when sufficiently large numbers of people are all privy to a plot to do something wrong, like violate the Fourth Amendment even after taking an oath to support it, eventually someone’s conscience will get the better of him and make him blow that whistle, even at great personal risk.
So, if it hadn’t been Snowden (and now this new, anonymous leaker), it would have been others sooner or later. There will always be those who are smart enough to understand the dangers of unchecked power, and there will always be those who know what real heroism is about.