A massive WikiLeaks dump of intelligence information has rocked the American national security community as well as cyber security experts. If it were a movie it would be Edward Snowden - The Sequel. Or better yet, Snowden - The Epic. It's that big and bad and it's likely to get ugly very soon.
After the Snowden affair, even ordinary Americans began to feel a bit hinky about the U.S. government’s ability to know what they watch, say, write and do. Still, most people simply tried to joke about it and laugh it off. But after yesterday’s announcement by WikiLeaks that it plans to begin a “new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency,” Americans may no longer find this a laughing matter.
And that may be the understatement of the year.
According to the international non-profit that makes its living publishing secret information, “Code-named "Vault 7" … is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.” Should the documents prove accurate – and Wikileaks has never been accused of spreading false information – the document dump could not only deal a serious body blow to U.S. Intelligence Agencies but could also incense the American people.
This is primarily because the Central Intelligence Agency has long held that its espionage capabilities were entirely in the foreign realm. However, reports only a few hours into the information dump show that not to be the case (see You Are Under Surveillance: Wikileaks Exposes the CIA).
In addition to blowing the lid off the CIA and infuriating the American people, the Wikileaks document dump is also poised to rock the tech world as just about every smartphone operating system not to mention flat screen televisions contain some type of integrated or attached spyware. That leaves just about no one in the Unites States of America untouched by the agency and its long arm of espionage.
Every news outlet across America is publishing the Wikileaks information explosion on its front page or in top-of-the-hour news alerts. According to The New York Times, “The entire archive of C.I.A. material consists of several hundred million lines of computer code.” The Wall Street Journal, capsulized the news by writing, “In one sense, Mr. Snowden provided a briefing book on U.S. surveillance, but the CIA leaks could provide the blueprints.” And the Washington Post quoted panicked cyber security experts:
“This is explosive,” said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. The material highlights specific anti-virus products that can be defeated, going further than a release of NSA hacking tools last year, he said. The CIA hackers, according to WikiLeaks, even “discussed what the NSA’s . . . hackers did wrong and how the CIA’s malware makers could avoid similar exposure.”
Explosive indeed, not just for the CIA – but for you and me and every Joe Six-Pack that has one sort of electronic device or another. This news also puts the new president in a bit of bind as he’s gone on record saying that he “loved Wikileaks.” But as everyone who has ever loved knows, love can easily turn to hate.
Apparently, this is just the beginning of Wikileaks putting the CIA on notice with mountains of secret information about to be made public. So, stay tuned to Liberty Nation.
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