Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/03/07/wikileaks-posts-cia-document-t.html
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Oh yeah? My computer doesn’t have a sound card, so take that!
I win!
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Wait, I looked that one up once after reading Game of Thrones. It’s basically a loaf of bread ripped open and filled with stew, right?
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Every computer with a webcam, laptops especially, should have a built in cover for it. Every computer with a microphone should have a hardware disconnect switch. Hell, I just want that last one so my boss doesn’t know when I’ve muted my microphone to rant.
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CIA can hack Signal, Telegram, Whatsapp and Confide
That’s completely false and not what the leaks show or what Wikileaks stated:
These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the “smart” phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.
Even Slashdot used such misleading sensationalism by omitting the important part:
In a statement, WikiLeaks said CIA has tools to bypass the encryption mechanisms imposed by popular instant messenger apps Signal, Confide, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
Edit: Thanks Rob for promptly correcting it!
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I believe you’re thinking of “trencher” which I too learned of via Martin. It was hard to not learn the word since he seemed to use it every chapter. The man has a serious food fetish.
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I realize that WikiLeaks has its own agenda and areas of concern, but their recent targets for disclosure do seem to consistently benefit You-Know-Who. A massive dump of information reminding everyone just how sneaky and evil the CIA is certainly fits with WikiLeaks’ core concerns, but it’s also a giant gift for the Tangerine Mussolini right when he’s in the middle of a feud with the intelligence community. At what point should even the most skeptical among us stop considering this a coincidence?
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From 5 years ago:
“With a growing number of ‘smart gadgets,’ spying on homes may start to become much easier. In fact, CIA Chief David Petraeus admitted that Americans were effectively bugging themselves and making it easy for spy agencies to peek in on their lives.”
Now I have to mute my refrigerator too
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For those who want to browse the files offline, here’s the official torrent:
https://file.wikileaks.org/torrent/WikiLeaks-Year-Zero-2017-v1.7z.torrent
Password: SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds
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Yeah. Which makes me wonder how the Republicans in general will respond to this. Since they’ve recently (suddenly) been Wikileaks supporters, are they going to get pulled into Trump’s war with the intelligence community with this?
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Of course Donald Trump does not actually need to rely on WikiLeaks for that kind of thing; he is the only person in the country who has the power to declassify any information he wants.
That’s one of the reasons his accusation about being wiretapped is so bonkers. He could simply order the intelligence agencies to disclose and/or declassify any information related to such an investigation. Instead he asked Congress to look into it.
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My guess is that Trump knew a while ago that Wikileaks was going to dump this data hence his recent bugging paranoia. He probably thinks his Samsung TV was spying on him.
"One, code-named Weeping Angel, uses Samsung “smart” televisions as covert listening devices. According to the WikiLeaks news release, even when it appears to be turned off, the television “operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert C.I.A. server.” -NYTimes
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Don’t forget your smart oven and Bluetooth-enabled pressure cooker.
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Boring. Call me when the release Trump’s Tax Returns.
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I updated the post – thanks for the clarification.
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Open the case, find the microphone, and unplug its leads from the logic board. Assuming you can open the case.
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Most here are going to disagree with me, but it seems to me that wikileaks is focusing their releases on whatever they see as posing the biggest and most immediate threat. In this case, it is the worlds most advanced and powerful security apparatus operating independently of executive branch oversight. Even I am uncomfortable with all those agencies doing Trump’s bidding, but if they are not working for for the executive branch, who are they working for?
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The more time passes, the less I can view Wikileaks releases as anything other than co-opted information warfare. It’s just timely pot-stirring with murky funding. I thought this NYT piece from a few months back was a good read:
I didn’t know Julian Assange got to be the host of a show on the Russian state-run news network when he was desperate for cash. What a lucky fella!
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OK, you’re technically correct (the best kind of correct), but it’s a distinction without a difference.
