WikiLeaks may have the U.S. government up in arms over its latest data dump that showcased the CIA’s hacking tools, but the website operator is offering to help technology companies prevent those techniques from working on their systems and products.
According to a report, WikiLeaks is offering to give technology companies detailed information about the CIA tools, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said during a press conference, according to the report. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for five years.
The documents WikiLeaks dumped earlier this week showed how the CIA is adept at hacking Apple’s iPhones, Samsung’s smart TVs and Android devices. The CIA was able to bypass encryption on messaging devices and take over control of the camera and microphone once the devices were hacked. With the Samsung TV, it was able to turn it into a spying device to listen to what was going on in the room where the TV was located. During the press conference, Assange reportedly said tech companies have already reached out to WikiLeaks regarding the CIA tools. WikiLeaks said it would hand over the information to technology companies so they can secure their products.
“We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out,” Assange said, according to the report.
Assange also revealed that WikiLeaks was able to access the CIA documents because the hacking toolkit was all in one location.
“The Central Intelligence Agency lost control of its entire cyberweapons arsenal,” Assange said. “This is an historic act of devastating incompetence to have created such an arsenal and stored it all in one place and not secured it.”
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