VAULT 7: WikiLeaks releases ‘Year Zero’

What is Vault 7? WikiLeaks releases ‘Year Zero’ files as part of ‘largest ever’ CIA leak

WIKILEAKS says its new series of leaked documents, mysteriously known as Vault 7, will be “largest intelligence publication in history”. But what is Vault 7 and what does the Year Zero part of the series reveal?

By ALICE FOSTER
EXPRESS


Getty

What is Vault7? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange releases ‘Year Zero’ leaked documents

In the build-up to the bombshell announcement today, WikiLeaks’ Twitter account posted a cryptic question: “What is Vault 7?”A statement from WikiLeaks announced: “Today, Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks begins its new series of leaks on the US 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.”WikiLeaks said: “‘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 US and European company products.”It added that the products included Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, “which are turned into covert microphones”.

In a statement, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: “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.”

Internet users around the world are now able to download the Year Zero documents after the passphrase was made public earlier today.

Mr Assange was not able reveal the contents of Vault 7 during a online press conference because the live stream fell victim to a cyber attack.

WikiLeaks tweeted: “As Mr Assange’s Perscipe+Facebook video stream links are under attack, his video press conference will be rescheduled.”

Ahead of the pubilcation, WikiLeaks said: “Today’s pending publication contains elements that will be of interest to all tech journalists.”WikiLeaks said: “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 US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.”

“Such is the scale of the CIA’s undertaking that by 2016, its hackers had utilized more code than that used to run Facebook,” it added.

“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.”

Assange: Source for the emails was not Russian government

What has WikiLeaks released before?

WikiLeak has recently posted a set of US Government ‘wanted’ posters for Mr Assange, WikiLeaks’ source Chelsea Manning and National Security Agency (NSA) mole Edward Snowden.

At the start of the year, WikiLeaks vowed to drop a huge bombshell that would blow the world away in 2017.

“If you thought 2016 was a big WikiLeaks year, 2017 will blow you away,” WikiLeaks tweeted in January, adding that a “showdown” was coming.

WikiLeaks’ last significant release was the publication of thousands of emails from the gmail account of Hillary Clinton’s account manager John Podesta in the run up to the US election.

The constant stream of WikiLeaks emails hit Mrs Clinton’s campaign hard and helped turn public opinion against her, paving the way for Donald Trump’s victory.

Mr Assange has repeatedly said that the Russian Government was not its source for leaks during the US election campaign.

He remains under political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

___
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/776066/Vault-7-what-is-Year-Zero-release-latest-WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-announcement

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.