#VAULT7 Year Zero: CIA Universal Spying & 'Invisible Government'
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In this video I go over the BOMBSHELL WikiLeaks release: Vault 7 part 1 aka Year Zero!!
Recently WikiLeaks released their much anticipated #Vault7 series, after tweeting a series of cryptic tweets asking What, Where, When, Who, Why, and How #Vault7 made its to WikiLeaks. This led many researchers, me included to wonder just what it might be about, with many believing it might rock the foundations of our society. In fact, the recent release may have just done that.
Vault 7 is a collection of documents from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that were leaked to WikiLeaks from an alleged whistleblower within the CIA that wanted to make their questionable secret dealings made available to the public. The first part of the series, Year Zero, shows the unprecedented spying capabilities and cyber warfare weapons technologies that have secretly been widely used on targets across the entire world, including 22 thousand targets in the United States. The spying capabilities also appear to widely overreach the commitments that the government has publicly made, which raises the question of whether the CIA acted on their own behalf, or were order to do so by the Obama administration, which could be grounds for prosecution.
Some of the revealed capabilities of the CIA include the ability to spy on nearly every “smart” phone, TV, car, airplane, or even infrastructure, and even make, for example TVs, appear in a “fake off” mode where they can control it and spy through the microphone and camera to unsuspecting people. Furthermore, the CIA can mask their “fingerprints” to make it appear the hacking is coming from another source, such as a country, i.e. Russia or China. The most disturbing part so far is that the CIA has released many cyber “weapons” or malware into the public internet, which required them to make them unclassified and thus in the public domain, which allows anyone to freely pirate them and make copies, giving the user the hacking capabilities of the CIA. Whether these malware codes have been obtained by others is a very real concern. Also, the CIA has hidden (or coordinated with tech companies) “zero days” or hidden vulnerabilities in their software, which allows for easy hacking entry by the CIA.
Year Zero is only 1% of the total Vault 7 documents, in which the total may amount to 1 MILLION documents!
Also in this video I go over the fact that I was the first person to discover on Twitter just what the Vault 7 was going to be about, a day before anyone else did, through the cryptic hidden monument in the WikiLeaks tweet prior to the Vault 7 release. The vault 7 download passphrase was: SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds which is a reference to the famous JFK quote: “to splinter the C.I.A. in thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds." In proving that this quote was indeed from JFK, I go over the 1966 CIA investigation by the New York Times to also illustrate that some of the concerns mentioned in that article over 50 years ago about the CIA are now more true than ever…
I will go over the mainstream media coverage of #Vault7, which I believe is one of the monumental news stories in human history, in a later video so stay tuned!
Vault 7 Playlist
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#VAULT7 Year Zero
CIA Universal Spying & "Invisible Government"
Topics To Cover
- My Vault 7 Pre-Release Discovery
- 1966 New York Times CIA Investigation
- Vault 7 Press Release
- Mainstream Media Coverage (Will do in a separate video)
My Vault 7 Pre-Release Discovery
I WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO TWEET ABOUT WHAT # VAULT7 WAS GOING TO BE ABOUT!
--> THE CIA!
I WAS THE FIRST PERSON (actually my brother did but I tweeted it) to find out that if you change the contrast/brightness of the image you can see a SECRET HIDDEN IMAGE!!
This is why you got to follow me on Twitter! --> @matheasysolns
The photo I included in the above tweet is not the exact monument used in the hidden image BUT the link is correct!
https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/12/19/things-to-do-in-dc-this-week-december-19-21/
19 December 2013 by Catherine P. Lewis
Things to Do in DC This Week (December 19-21): Art at the Convention Center, A Galaga Tournament, and Gremlins
Join a curator for a public art tour at the Convention Center on Wednesday. Photograph courtesy Events DC.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/03/what-is-wikileaks-vault-7-photos-clues-theories/
6 March 2017 by Stephanie Dube DwilsonWhat Is WikiLeaks’ Vault 7? Photos & Clues
…
There’s a Hidden Photo in WikiLeaks’ Tweet
WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 tweet contained a hidden message, because the background isn’t just a black frame. In fact, it’s a photo that has been darkened.
…
Lighten it a little and you see this:
The photo says “Prefecture” beneath the world “Vault.” Some think it reads Prefecture 333, but it actually reads Prefecture 353. We found the source of the photo. But first, here are the guesses that were wrong:
Some believe that the photo appears to be of Kryptos, a sculpture outside the CIA headquarters in Langley. The sculpture, by James Sanborn, includes four encrypted messages. Since it was dedicated on November 3, 1990, three out of four of the messages have been solved. Here’s a photo of the sculpture below. However, this is not the sculpture in WikiLeaks’ photo.
(Jim Sanborn)Others say the photo is actually this sculpture in the D.C. Convention Center.
We found out what it actually is. The photo is “Lingua,” one of two art pieces at the registration area of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. This is the photo that WikiLeaks used, courtesy of Flickr’s open source library:
Vault 7 (Flickr/David) License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
As you can see, WikiLeaks did not edit the Prefecture part into the photo. The sculpture already reads “Prefecture 353 A.D.” So no, unlike what some theories have surmised, this is not related to China’s 333 prefecture-level cities.
…
As far as the Year Zero part of the tweet, some surmised that it could mean that the information is so huge that it could feel like “restarting” part of history once it’s released. However, according to a later tweet by WikiLeaks, it actually means that it’s the first in a series of releases that WikiLeaks plans for Vault 7.
My Tweet made it on Heavy.com!!
Also the questions about "Prefecture 353" vs. "Prefecture 333", as well as the China's 333 prefecture-level cities question was also started and promoted by me…. LOL
So basically the bulk of the Heavy.com article probably stems from my Twitter coverage.
Check my Twitter out to see the wild mayhem that ensued! --> @matheasysolns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKc5gq7vLXE&lc=z13vtzjgtyflirf5i04cetjyvuqnsrajknw0k.1488865125669636
5 March 2017 by The Outer Dark5 Things about Obama's wiretap of Trump Tower # TowerGate # Uscoup
Ed from The Outer Dark gave me a shout-out for finding the hidden picture!! # AMAZING
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfrY2c7me54&lc=z12axzrpty2ctthr404cetjyvuqnsrajknw0k
8 March 2017 by The Outer Dark15 Things Vault7 Year One tells us # Wikileaks # USCoup
https://youtu.be/ccopktOzWSQ?t=9m58s
7 March 2017 by Gorilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich# Vault7, Based Stick Man Legal Defense, # MAGAMeetUps
Mike Cernovich gave credit to @1080p but I WAS THE FIRST TO POST IT # IMPLAYINGFORKEEPZ
Also, he (referencing @1080p) mistaken the monument for the Kryptos one…
https://twitter.com/1080p/status/838927493176373248
My tweet was at 5:28 PM and my reply to WikiLeaks was at 5:32 PM.
Anyways no big deal, but just providing you reasons for following my Twitter account --> [@matheasysolns](https://x.com/@matheasysolns]
Vault 7 Released
The password was: SplinterItIntoAThousandPiecesAndScatterItIntoTheWinds
This is a famous quote from former President JFK before his assassination…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
Retrieved: 9 March 2017John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. The Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the establishment of the Peace Corps, developments in the Space Race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Trade Expansion Act to lower tariffs, and the Civil Rights Movement all took place during his presidency.
https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9400E4DB1639E63BBC4D51DFB266838D679EDE&legacy=true
25 April 1966 by Tom Wicker, John W. Finney, Max Frankel, E.W. Kenworthy and other NY Times staff members.C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool?
Survey Finds Widely Feared Agency Is Tightly Controlled
The C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool? Agency Raises Questions Around World
SURVEY DISCLOSES STRICT CONTROLS | But Reputation of Agency Is Found to Make It a Burden on U.S. Action
Following is the first of five articles on the Central Intelligence Agency. The articles are by a team of New York Times correspondents consisting of Tom Wicker, John W. Finney, Max Frankel, E.W. Kenworthy and other Times staff members.
I, regrettably, paid for the article, and you can download it here: https://tinyurl.com/JFKSplinterCIA
1966 New York Times CIA Investigation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion
Retrieved: 9 March 2017Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (Spanish: Invasión de Playa Girón or Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos or Batalla de Girón) was a failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military (made up of Cuban exiles who traveled to the United States after Castro's takeover), trained and funded by the United States government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (DRF) and intended to overthrow the increasingly communist government of Fidel Castro. Launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua, the invading force was defeated within three days by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, under the direct command of Prime Minister Fidel Castro.…
On the night of 16 April, the main invasion landed at a beach named Playa Girón in the Bay of Pigs.
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp82r00025r000700050014-9
Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
Document Release Date: January 11, 2005C.I.A.: MAKER OF POLICY, OR TOOL?
You can download / view that article on CIA's website as well (so save your money!)
https://archive.org/stream/nsia-CIANewYorkTimesSeries/nsia-CIANewYorkTimesSeries/CIA%20NY%20Times%20Series%2007_djvu.txt
Retrieved: 9 March 2017FULL TEXT VERSION: C.I.A. : Maker of Policy, or Tool?
WASHINGTON, April 24— One day in 1960 an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
caught a plane in Tokyo, flew to Singapore and checked into a hotel room in time to receive a visitor. The agent plugged a lie detector into an overloaded electrical circuit and blew out the light in the building.In the investigation that followed, the agent and a C.I.A. colleague were arrested and
jailed as American spies.…
Ultimately, the incident led the United States Government to tell a lie in public and then
to admit the lie even more publicly.Persistent Questions
The lie was no sooner disclosed than a world predisposed to suspicion of the C.I.A. and unaware of what really had happened in Singapore five years earlier began to repeat questions that have dogged the intelligence agency and the United States Government for years:
Was this secret body, which was known to have overthrown governments and installed others, raised armies, staged an invasion of Cuba, spied and counterspied, established air lines, radio stations and schools and supported books, magazines and businesses, running out of the control of its supposed political master?'
Was it in fact damaging, while it sought to advance, the national interest? Could it spend huge sums for ransoms, bribes and subversion without check or regard for the consequences ?
Did it lie to or influence the political leaders of the United States to such an extent that it really was an “invisible government" more powerful than even the President?
…
A Wide Examination
To seek reliable answers to these questions; to sift, where possible, fact from fancy and theory from condition; to determine what real questions of public policy and international relations are posed by the existence and operations of the C.I.A., The New York Times has compiled information and opinions from informed Americans throughout the world.
It has obtained reports from 20 foreign correspondents and editors with recent service in more than 35 countries and from reporters in Washington who interviewed more than 50 present and former Government officials, members of Congress and military officers.
MES NOTE: I am not aware of the documents ever being released by the NY Times to the public.
This study, carried out over several months, disclosed, for instance, that the Singapore affair resulted not from a lack of political control or from recklessness by the C.I.A., but from bad fortune and diplomatic blundering.
It found that the C.I.A.. for all its fearsome reputation, is under far more stringent political and budgetary control than most of its critics know or concede, and that since the Bay of Pigs disaster in Cuba in 1961 these controls have been tightly exercised.
…
President Sukarno of Indonesia, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s Chief of State, President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, former President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and many other leaders have repeatedly insisted that behind the regular American government there is an "invisible government," the C.I.A., threatening them all with infiltration, subversion and even war. Communist China and the Soviet Union sound this theme endlessly.
"The Invisible Government” was the phrase applied to American intelligence agencies, and particularly the C.I.A., in a book of that title by David Wise and Thomas B. Ross. It was a best-seller in the United States and among many government officials abroad.
…
Many earnest Americans, too, are bitter critics of the C.I.A.
Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, Democrat of Minnesota, has charged that the agency “is making foreign policy and in so doing is assuming the roles of President and Congress." He has introduced a proposal to create a special Foreign Relations sub-committee to make a "full and complete” study of the effects of C.I.A. operations on United States foreign relations.
Senator Stephen M, Young, Democrat of Ohio, has proposed that a joint Senate-House committee oversee the C.I.A. because, “wrapped in a cloak of secrecy, the C.I.A. has, in effect, been making foreign policy."
Mayor Lindsay of New York, while a Republican member of Congress, indicted the C.I.A. on the House floor for a long series of fiascos, including the most famous blunder in recent American history— the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Former President Harry S. Truman, whose Administration established the C.I.A. in 1947. said in 1963 that by then he saw “something about the way the C.I.A. has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic positions, and I feel that we need to correct it."
Kennedy’s Bitterness
And President Kennedy, as the enormity of the Bay of Pigs disaster came home to him, said to one of the highest officials of his Administration that he wanted “to splinter the C.I.A. in thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."
…
They do not know that, instead of a blank check, the C.I.A. has an annual budget of a little more than $500-million — only one-sixth the $3-billion the Government spends on its overall intelligence effort. The National Security Agency. a cryptographic and code - breaking operation run by the Defense Department and almost never questioned by outsiders, spends twice as much as the C.I.A.
https://ic.mes.fm/e339420fb9de
Retrieved: 9 March 2017
Inflation Calculator: USA 1966 to 2015
CIA spent $500 Million per year in 1966 which is equivalent to over $3.6 Billion per year today!NSA spent double the CIA in 1966: About $1 Billion 1996 USD equivalent to over $6.2 billion today.
Total Intelligence spending in 1966: $3 billion 1966 USD equivalent to over $21.6 billion today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency
Retrieved: 9 March 2017
Central Intelligence Agency
Annual budget $15 billion (as of 2013)[3][4][5]
The government has disclosed a total figure for all non-military intelligence spending since 2007; the fiscal 2013 figure is $52.6 billion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency
Retrieved: 10 March 2017
National Security Agency
Annual budget Classified (estimated $10.8 billion, 2013)[6][7]
Summary (in roughly equivalent $USD today):
- CIA went from 50% of NSA's in 1966 spending to about 140% today.
- CIA went from 16.67% (1/6) of total intelligence spending in 1966 to about 29% today.
- Total intelligence spending increased over 143% from 1966 to today.
- CIA spending increased by about 320% from 1966 to today.
- NSA spending increased by about 75% from 1966 to today.
https://pc.mes.fm/0c50a9a141f6
Retrieved: 10 March 2017
Percentage Calculator: Calculations
The critics shrug aside the fact that President Kennedy, after the most rigorous inquiry
into the agency's affairs, methods and problems after the Bay of Pigs, did not “splinter” it after all and did not recommend Congressional supervision.They may be unaware that since then supervision of intelligence activities has been tightened. When President Eisenhower [NOTE: Preceded JFK] wrote a letter to all Ambassadors placing them in charge of all American activities in their countries, he followed it with a secret letter specifically exempting the C.I.A.; but when President Kennedy put the Ambassadors in command of all activities, he sent a secret letter specifically including the C.I.A. It still in effect but, like all directives, variously interpreted.
…
Thus, it is easy for sincere men to believe deeply that the C.I.A. must be brought "to heel" in the nation’s own interest. Yet very well-informed official and former official with recent knowledge of the C.I.A. and its activities who was interviewed confirmed what Secretary of Rusk has said publicly - that the C.I.A. "does not initiate actions unknown to the high policy leaders of the Government."
The New York Times survey left no doubt that, whatever its miscalculations, blunders and misfortunes, whatever may have been the situation during its bumptious early days and during its over-hasty expansion in and after the Korean War, the agency acts today not on its own but with the approval and under the control of the political leaders of the United States Government.
But that virtually undisputed fact raises in itself the central questions that emerge from the survey: What is control? And who guards the guards?
For it is upon information provided by the C.I.A. itself that those who must approve its activities are usually required to decide.
It is the C.I.A. that has the money (not unlimited but ample) and the talent (as much as any agency) not only to conceive but also to carry out projects of great importance — and commensurate risk.
Action, If Not Success
It is the C.I.A., unlike the Defense Department with its service rivalries, budget concerns and political involvements, and unlike the State Department with its international diplomatic responsibilities and its vulnerability to criticism, that is freest of all agencies to advocate its projects and press home its views; the C.I.A. can promise action, if not success.
And both the agency and who must pass upon its are shielded by security the outside oversight and review under which virtually all officials operate, at home and abroad.
Thus, while the survey left no doubt that the C.I.A. operates under strict forms of control, it raised the more serious question whether there was always the substance of control.
In many ways, moreover, public discussion has become too centered on the question of control. A more disturbing matter may be whether the nation has allowed itself to go too far in the grim and sometimes deadly business of espionage and secret operations.
Struggle for Freedom
But that struggle, Mr. Rusk insisted, is "part of the struggle for freedom."
No one seriously disputes that the effort to gain intelligence about real or potential enemies even about one’s friends, is a vital part of any government’s activities, particularly a government so burdened with responsibility as the United States Government in the 20th century.
But beyond their need for information, how far should the political leaders of the United
States go in approving the clandestine violation of treaties and borders, financing of coups, influencing of parties and governments, without tarnishing and retarding those ideas of freedom and self-government they proclaim to the world?And how much of the secrecy and autonomy necessary to carry out such acts can or should be tolerated by a free society?
There are no certain or easy answers. But these questions cannot even be discussed knowledgeably on the basis of the few glimpses — accidental or intentional — that the public has so into the private world of the C.I.A.
…
The NY Times investigation, while defending the CIA from the concerns of former US Presidents, as well as domestic and foreign politicians and world leaders, and of course the public at the large, argues based on discussions with many insiders that the CIA is under strict political control.
But this investigation raises more questions than answers, namely the concept of "control", in which the CIA provides the necessary intelligence information to politicians upon which they decide how to "control" the CIA.
The CIA is also the freest, most secret, and most autonomous government agency in advocating and undertaking any project it wants.
Whether the CIA is behaving in the public's best interest, or at the very least of the politicians that oversee it, is essentially a matter of belief.
The concerns brought up in the NY Times Investigation more than 50 years ago, which in my opinion were too easily downplayed and dismissed by NY Times, as well as the following quote, are eerily representative of the concerns over the CIA today…
And how much of the secrecy and autonomy necessary to carry out such acts can or should be tolerated by a free society?
Vault 7 Press Release
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
7 March 2017Press Release
Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named "Vault 7" by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.
The first full part of the series, "Year Zero", comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina. It follows an introductory disclosure last month of CIA targeting French political parties and candidates in the lead up to the 2012 presidential election.
Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.
"Year Zero" introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones.
https://www.pctools.com/security-news/zero-day-vulnerability/
Retrieved: 9 March 2017What is a Zero-Day Vulnerability?
A zero day vulnerability refers to a hole in software that is unknown to the vendor. This security hole is then exploited by hackers before the vendor becomes aware and hurries to fix it—this exploit is called a zero day attack. Uses of zero day attacks can include infiltrating malware, spyware or allowing unwanted access to user information. The term “zero day” refers to the unknown nature of the hole to those outside of the hackers, specifically, the developers. Once the vulnerability becomes known, a race begins for the developer, who must protect users.
Since 2001 the CIA has gained political and budgetary preeminence over the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The CIA found itself building not just its now infamous drone fleet, but a very different type of covert, globe-spanning force — its own substantial fleet of hackers. The agency's hacking division freed it from having to disclose its often controversial operations to the NSA (its primary bureaucratic rival) in order to draw on the NSA's hacking capacities.
By the end of 2016, the CIA's hacking division, which formally falls under the agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), had over 5000 registered users and had produced more than a thousand hacking systems, trojans, viruses, and other "weaponized" malware. Such is the scale of the CIA's undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook. The CIA had created, in effect, its "own NSA" with even less accountability and without publicly answering the question as to whether such a massive budgetary spend on duplicating the capacities of a rival agency could be justified.
In a statement to WikiLeaks the source details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.
Once a single cyber 'weapon' is 'loose' it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor stated that "There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber 'weapons'. Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such 'weapons', which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. But the significance of "Year Zero" goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective."
Wikileaks has carefully reviewed the "Year Zero" disclosure and published substantive CIA documentation while avoiding the distribution of 'armed' cyberweapons until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the CIA's program and how such 'weapons' should analyzed, disarmed and published.
Wikileaks has also decided to redact and anonymise some identifying information in "Year Zero" for in depth analysis. These redactions include ten of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States. While we are aware of the imperfect results of any approach chosen, we remain committed to our publishing model and note that the quantity of published pages in "Vault 7" part one (“Year Zero”) already eclipses the total number of pages published over the first three years of the Edward Snowden NSA leaks.
Analysis
CIA malware targets iPhone, Android, smart TVs
…
The increasing sophistication of surveillance techniques has drawn comparisons with George Orwell's 1984, but "Weeping Angel", developed by the CIA's Embedded Devices Branch (EDB), which infests smart TVs, transforming them into covert microphones, is surely its most emblematic realization.
The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom's MI5/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.
As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.
The CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones. Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user's geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone's camera and microphone.
…
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.
CIA malware targets Windows, OSx, Linux, routers
…
The CIA has developed automated multi-platform malware attack and control systems covering Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux and more, such as EDB's "HIVE" and the related "Cutthroat" and "Swindle" tools, which are described in the examples section below.
CIA 'hoarded' vulnerabilities ("zero days")
In the wake of Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA, the U.S. technology industry secured a commitment from the Obama administration that the executive would disclose on an ongoing basis — rather than hoard — serious vulnerabilities, exploits, bugs or "zero days" to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other US-based manufacturers.
Serious vulnerabilities not disclosed to the manufacturers places huge swathes of the population and critical infrastructure at risk to foreign intelligence or cyber criminals who independently discover or hear rumors of the vulnerability. If the CIA can discover such vulnerabilities so can others.
The U.S. government's commitment to the Vulnerabilities Equities Process came after significant lobbying by US technology companies, who risk losing their share of the global market over real and perceived hidden vulnerabilities. The government stated that it would disclose all pervasive vulnerabilities discovered after 2010 on an ongoing basis.
"Year Zero" documents show that the CIA breached the Obama administration's commitments. Many of the vulnerabilities used in the CIA's cyber arsenal are pervasive and some may already have been found by rival intelligence agencies or cyber criminals.
MES NOTE: The 1966 NY Times article argued that the CIA is not rogue but in fact under strict orders by the government… If this is true today then this would mean Obama breached his own commitments!
As an example, specific CIA malware revealed in "Year Zero" is able to penetrate, infest and control both the Android phone and iPhone software that runs or has run presidential Twitter accounts. The CIA attacks this software by using undisclosed security vulnerabilities ("zero days") possessed by the CIA but if the CIA can hack these phones then so can everyone else who has obtained or discovered the vulnerability. As long as the CIA keeps these vulnerabilities concealed from Apple and Google (who make the phones) they will not be fixed, and the phones will remain hackable.
The same vulnerabilities exist for the population at large, including the U.S. Cabinet, Congress, top CEOs, system administrators, security officers and engineers. By hiding these security flaws from manufacturers like Apple and Google the CIA ensures that it can hack everyone &mdsh; at the expense of leaving everyone hackable.
'Cyberwar' programs are a serious proliferation risk
Cyber 'weapons' are not possible to keep under effective control.
While nuclear proliferation has been restrained by the enormous costs and visible infrastructure involved in assembling enough fissile material to produce a critical nuclear mass, cyber 'weapons', once developed, are very hard to retain.
Cyber 'weapons' are in fact just computer programs which can be pirated like any other. Since they are entirely comprised of information they can be copied quickly with no marginal cost.
Securing such 'weapons' is particularly difficult since the same people who develop and use them have the skills to exfiltrate copies without leaving traces — sometimes by using the very same 'weapons' against the organizations that contain them. There are substantial price incentives for government hackers and consultants to obtain copies since there is a global "vulnerability market" that will pay hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars for copies of such 'weapons'. Similarly, contractors and companies who obtain such 'weapons' sometimes use them for their own purposes, obtaining advantage over their competitors in selling 'hacking' services.
…
Once a single cyber 'weapon' is 'loose' it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by peer states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.
U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a covert CIA hacker base
In addition to its operations in Langley, Virginia the CIA also uses the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt as a covert base for its hackers covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
CIA hackers operating out of the Frankfurt consulate ( "Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe" or CCIE) are given diplomatic ("black") passports and State Department cover. The instructions for incoming CIA hackersmake Germany's counter-intelligence efforts appear inconsequential: "Breeze through German Customs because you have your cover-for-action story down pat, and all they did was stamp your passport"
Your Cover Story (for this trip)
Q: Why are you here?
A: Supporting technical consultations at the Consulate.
Two earlier WikiLeaks publications give further detail on CIA approaches to customs and secondary screening procedures.
Once in Frankfurt CIA hackers can travel without further border checks to the 25 European countries that are part of the Shengen open border area — including France, Italy and Switzerland.
A number of the CIA's electronic attack methods are designed for physical proximity. These attack methods are able to penetrate high security networks that are disconnected from the internet, such as police record database. In these cases, a CIA officer, agent or allied intelligence officer acting under instructions, physically infiltrates the targeted workplace. The attacker is provided with a USB containing malware developed for the CIA for this purpose, which is inserted into the targeted computer. The attacker then infects and exfiltrates data to removable media. For example, the CIA attack system Fine Dining, provides 24 decoy applications for CIA spies to use. To witnesses, the spy appears to be running a program showing videos (e.g VLC), presenting slides (Prezi), playing a computer game (Breakout2, 2048) or even running a fake virus scanner (Kaspersky, McAfee, Sophos). But while the decoy application is on the screen, the underlaying system is automatically infected and ransacked.
How the CIA dramatically increased proliferation risks
In what is surely one of the most astounding intelligence own goals in living memory, the CIA structured its classification regime such that for the most market valuable part of "Vault 7" — the CIA's weaponized malware (implants + zero days), Listening Posts (LP), and Command and Control (C2) systems — the agency has little legal recourse.
The CIA made these systems unclassified.
Why the CIA chose to make its cyberarsenal unclassified reveals how concepts developed for military use do not easily crossover to the 'battlefield' of cyber 'war'.
To attack its targets, the CIA usually requires that its implants communicate with their control programs over the internet. If CIA implants, Command & Control and Listening Post software were classified, then CIA officers could be prosecuted or dismissed for violating rules that prohibit placing classified information onto the Internet. Consequently the CIA has secretly made most of its cyber spying/war code unclassified. The U.S. government is not able to assert copyright either, due to restrictions in the U.S. Constitution. This means that cyber 'arms' manufactures and computer hackers can freely "pirate" these 'weapons' if they are obtained. The CIA has primarily had to rely on obfuscation to protect its malware secrets.
Conventional weapons such as missiles may be fired at the enemy (i.e into an unsecured area). Proximity to or impact with the target detonates the ordnance including its classified parts. Hence military personnel do not violate classification rules by firing ordnance with classified parts. Ordnance will likely explode. If it does not, that is not the operator's intent.
Over the last decade U.S. hacking operations have been increasingly dressed up in military jargon to tap into Department of Defense funding streams. For instance, attempted "malware injections" (commercial jargon) or "implant drops" (NSA jargon) are being called "fires" as if a weapon was being fired. However the analogy is questionable.
Unlike bullets, bombs or missiles, most CIA malware is designed to live for days or even years after it has reached its 'target'. CIA malware does not "explode on impact" but rather permanently infests its target. In order to infect target's device, copies of the malware must be placed on the target's devices, giving physical possession of the malware to the target. To exfiltrate data back to the CIA or to await further instructions the malware must communicate with CIA Command & Control (C2) systems placed on internet connected servers. But such servers are typically not approved to hold classified information, so CIA command and control systems are also made unclassified.
A successful 'attack' on a target's computer system is more like a series of complex stock maneuvers in a hostile take-over bid or the careful planting of rumors in order to gain control over an organization's leadership rather than the firing of a weapons system. If there is a military analogy to be made, the infestation of a target is perhaps akin to the execution of a whole series of military maneuvers against the target's territory including observation, infiltration, occupation and exploitation.
Evading forensics and anti-virus
A series of standards lay out CIA malware infestation patterns which are likely to assist forensic crime scene investigators as well as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Siemens and anti-virus companies attribute and defend against attacks.
"Tradecraft DO's and DON'Ts" contains CIA rules on how its malware should be written to avoid fingerprints implicating the "CIA, US government, or its witting partner companies" in "forensic review". Similar secret standards cover the use of encryption to hide CIA hacker and malware communication (pdf), describing targets & exfiltrated data (pdf) as well as executing payloads (pdf) and persisting (pdf) in the target's machines over time.
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UMBRAGE
The CIA's hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a "fingerprint" that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity.
This is analogous to finding the same distinctive knife wound on multiple separate murder victims. The unique wounding style creates suspicion that a single murderer is responsible. As soon one murder in the set is solved then the other murders also find likely attribution.
The CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.
With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the "fingerprints" of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.
UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.
Examples
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Fine Dining
Fine Dining comes with a standardized questionnaire i.e menu that CIA case officers fill out. The questionnaire is used by the agency's OSB (Operational Support Branch) to transform the requests of case officers into technical requirements for hacking attacks (typically "exfiltrating" information from computer systems) for specific operations.
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Among the list of possible targets of the collection are 'Asset', 'Liason Asset', 'System Administrator', 'Foreign Information Operations', 'Foreign Intelligence Agencies' and 'Foreign Government Entities'. Notably absent is any reference to extremists or transnational criminals.
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HIVE
HIVE is a multi-platform CIA malware suite and its associated control software.
… if a valid certificate is missing (which is the case if someone tries to open the cover domain website by accident), the traffic is forwarded to a cover server that delivers an unsuspicious looking website.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why now?
WikiLeaks published as soon as its verification and analysis were ready.
In Febuary the Trump administration has issued an Executive Order calling for a "Cyberwar" review to be prepared within 30 days.
While the review increases the timeliness and relevance of the publication it did not play a role in setting the publication date.
Redactions
Names, email addresses and external IP addresses have been redacted in the released pages (70,875 redactions in total) until further analysis is complete.
- Over-redaction: Some items may have been redacted that are not employees, contractors, targets or otherwise related to the agency, but are, for example, authors of documentation for otherwise public projects that are used by the agency.
- Identity vs. person: the redacted names are replaced by user IDs (numbers) to allow readers to assign multiple pages to a single author. Given the redaction process used a single person may be represented by more than one assigned identifier but no identifier refers to more than one real person.
- Archive attachments (zip, tar.gz, ...) are replaced with a PDF listing all the file names in the archive. As the archive content is assessed it may be made available; until then the archive is redacted.
- Attachments with other binary content are replaced by a hex dump of the content to prevent accidental invocation of binaries that may have been infected with weaponized CIA malware. As the content is assessed it may be made available; until then the content is redacted.
- The tens of thousands of routable IP addresses references (including more than 22 thousand within the United States) that correspond to possible targets, CIA covert listening post servers, intermediary and test systems, are redacted for further exclusive investigation.
- Binary files of non-public origin are only available as dumps to prevent accidental invocation of CIA malware infected binaries.
Organizational Chart
The organizational chart corresponds to the material published by WikiLeaks so far.
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Wiki pages
"Year Zero" contains 7818 web pages with 943 attachments from the internal development groupware. The software used for this purpose is called Confluence, a proprietary software from Atlassian. Webpages in this system (like in Wikipedia) have a version history that can provide interesting insights on how a document evolved over time; the 7818 documents include these page histories for 1136 latest versions.
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What time period is covered?
The years 2013 to 2016. The sort order of the pages within each level is determined by date (oldest first).
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What is "Vault 7"
"Vault 7" is a substantial collection of material about CIA activities obtained by WikiLeaks.
When was each part of "Vault 7" obtained?
Part one was obtained recently and covers through 2016. Details on the other parts will be available at the time of publication.
Is each part of "Vault 7" from a different source?
Details on the other parts will be available at the time of publication.
What is the total size of "Vault 7"?
The series is the largest intelligence publication in history.
How did WikiLeaks obtain each part of "Vault 7"?
Sources trust WikiLeaks to not reveal information that might help identify them.
Isn't WikiLeaks worried that the CIA will act against its staff to stop the series?
No. That would be certainly counter-productive.
Has WikiLeaks already 'mined' all the best stories?
No. WikiLeaks has intentionally not written up hundreds of impactful stories to encourage others to find them and so create expertise in the area for subsequent parts in the series. They're there. Look. Those who demonstrate journalistic excellence may be considered for early access to future parts.Won't other journalists find all the best stories before me?
Unlikely. There are very considerably more stories than there are journalists or academics who are in a position to write them.
THIS IS A BOMBSHELL LEAK!
The documents show CIA's unprecedented capabilities and concerns raised including:
- spying on and controlling phones, computers, TVs, operating systems, cars, planes, etc.
- Manipulating hacking "finger prints" to resemble that of foreign states, governments, or even anyone else to mislead law enforcement.
- Skype video/audio conversations get automatically transcribed to text and stored in secret CIA servers.
- Kept "zero day" or hacking vulnerabilities from major companies including Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others, in order to be able to hack into them.
- Thus the CIA purposely compromised the security of millions of people in order to be able to hack them better.
- It is possible that large companies worked in coordination with the CIA… - TVs, phones can be accessed even when they are turned "off"… # wow # fakeoff
- CIA made cyber weapons unclassified in order to use over the internet, and can't be claimed ownership by the US government, thus allowing them to be freely pirated by anyone, and used on anyone.
- The cyber weapons are nothing more than just code or information, and thus can be easily copied and distributed.
- Foreign governments, or even the smart teenage hacker, may already have access to these CIA-created cyber weapons, and could also hack anyone while masking their presence as if to be coming from another location or person or agency.
Essentially, the CIA can spy on everyone and everything, hack cars to drive off a cliff (i.e. untraceable assassinations), all while blaming Russia or even more bizarrely making it look like China did it while masking as Russia… # WOW # HACKCEPTION
How much longer will we tolerate our privacy and safety to be trampled upon?
This question is not much different than that made in the 1966 NY Times investigation more than 50 years ago…
And how much of the secrecy and autonomy necessary to carry out such acts can or should be tolerated by a free society?
My opinion: THE ENTIRE CIA NEEDS TO BE ABOLISHED AND/OR DEFUNDED AND PEOPLE MUST GO TO JAIL!!
https://twitter.com/MathEasySolns/status/839237993420345344
For more info on Wikileaks # Vault7 go to: https://our.wikileaks.org/Vault_7
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE…
Vault 7 Year Zero has 8,761 documents, which means that there are a total of approximately 1 MILLION documents!! # WOW
COMMENT & LET ME WHAT YOU THINK THE REST OF THE VAULT 7 LEAKS WILL REVEAL!
Mainstream Media Coverage (preview)
AS USUAL Twitter's pathetic censorship of real news…
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23vault7%20trending&src=typd
Archive: https://archive.is/yVzZX
Retrieved: 7 March 2017Twitter Search: # vault7 trending
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