1008 IMF approves $4.2bn loan for Ecuador; Assange arrested for revealing CIA Vault 7 tools to hack computers & phones

IMF approves $4.2bn loan for Ecuador; Assange arrested for revealing CIA
Vault 7 tools to hack computers & phones

Newsletter published on April 14, 2019

(1) Assange exposed US war crime in Baghdad
(2) WikiLeaks released video of Apache helicopter slaying of civilians
in Baghdad
(3) Assange is accused of conspiracy with Manning over video of US
soldiers War Crime
(4) IMF approves $4.2bn loan for Ecuador - in return for kicking Assange
out of London embassy
(5) Assange arrested for revealing CIA Vault 7 tools to hack computers &
phones
(6) CIA Vault 7 Whistleblower Joshua Schulte passed info to Assange
(7) CIA Vault 7 hacking tools

(1) Assange exposed US war crime in Baghdad

https://worldbeyondwar.org/10-reasons-assange-should-walk-free/

10 Reasons Assange Should Walk Free

By David Swanson | Apr 12, 2019

10 Reasons Assange Should Walk Free

Exposing war crimes is not a crime, and other reasons why Julian Assange
should be freed.

1. Governments’ (monstrous and criminal) behavior should not be secret.
People should know what their government is doing, and what a powerful
foreign government is doing to their own countries. The actual results
of the work of WikiLeaks have been hugely beneficial.

2. If U.S. courts were to get busy prosecuting the crimes exposed by
WikiLeaks, rather than trying to turn the act of revealing them into
some sort of crime, they would simply not have time for the latter.

3. Prosecutions should not be arbitrary political choices. A Justice
Department wrongly under the thumb of Obama decided against prosecuting
Assange. A Justice Department wrongly under the thumb of Trump decided
to prosecute, based on exactly the same information but different
politics. When Trump was celebrating WikiLeaks three years ago it was
for acts of journalism he is not prosecuting; instead he is prosecuting
just the journalism that he opposes.

4. The choice to prosecute these particular acts is driven by the
military industrial complex, but also by Russiagate. The U.S. media and
top politicians have long sought to depict Julian Assange as something
other than a journalist on the fictional grounds that he is in the
employ of or collaborating with an enemy government. If Assange had
exposed the peccadilloes of the peace movement, or if he had not figured
in the Russiagate myth, he would be free. They’d let him be. Breathing
air like you and me.

5. Nobody on either side of the debate right now has knowledge of or is
focused on the details of the allegation that Assange did something
unjournalistic by attempting unsuccessfully to hack into a computer in
order to protect a source. This trial by media is no more about that
than the Monica Lewinsky scandal was about lying under oath. And the
trial by jury is likely to resemble the trial by media, if previous
trials, such as Jeffrey Sterling’s, in the Virginia court of choice for
patriotic railroaders are any guide.

6. The details of that unjournalistic allegation are likely very weak,
because the indictment throws in various other allegations that are
purely journalistic: encouraging a source, protecting a source. To an
ignorant, all-white, militarized-community jury impressed by important
national figures saying the word "conspiracy" a lot, these other
allegations will loom large.

7. If the United States charges Assange with violating horribly
anti-democratic U.S. secrecy laws, and denounces him on TV as a
"traitor," despite Assange not being a U.S. citizen, other countries may
begin to find the nerve to charge U.S. journalists with violating their
secrecy laws. The next Washington Post reporter hacked to death by Saudi
Arabia may get a trial first.

8. If Assange is brought to the United States and not convicted, or is
convicted and serves out a sentence, one can expect the U.S. government,
legally or otherwise, to further prosecute or simply imprison him
indefinitely. In the propaganda that surrounds this drama it is not a
legal proceeding, but a war. If Trump gets away with the numerous crimes
and outrages he has thus far gotten away with, he or his successor will
have little difficulty devising a way to further "protect" us from Assange.

9. If Assange is prosecuted, many U.S. journalists will deliver a
self-inflicted blow to their institution dwarfing what the U.S.
government delivers. They will declare it fit and proper for a single
head of a secretive government to sadistically punish disapproved of
journalists. They will pledge their loyalty not to truth or public
knowledge, but to the Empire.

10. This. https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org

(2) WikiLeaks released video of Apache helicopter slaying of civilians
in Baghdad
https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org

{watch the videos of the killing, at above link or
https://youtu.be/5rXPrfnU3G0 }

5th April 2010 10:44 EST

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the
indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New
Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of
Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The
video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the
unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two
young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and
stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S.
military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance
with the law of armed conflict and its own "Rules of Engagement".

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement
for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after
the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter
version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both
versions from the radio transmissions.

WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a
number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to
verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed
the information about this incident from a variety of source material.
We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the
incident.

WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives
gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the
people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs:
putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very
dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were
killed while doing their work.

(3) Assange is accused of conspiracy with Manning over video of US
soldiers War Crime
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/04/11/the-age-of-injustice/

The Age of Injustice

By Paul Craig Roberts | Apr 12, 2019

Julian Assange’s conviction will make it impossible for media to report
leaked information that is unfavorable to the government.

[...] Assange is accused of being in a conspiracy with Manning to obtain
and publicize secret government data, such as the film, which was
already known to a Washington Post reporter who failed his newspaper and
his profession by remaining silent, of U.S. soldiers committing
extraordinary war crimes without remorse. As a U.S. soldier, it was
actually Manning’s duty to report the crimes and the failure of U.S.
troops to disobey unlawful orders. Manning was supposed to report the
crimes to his superiors, not to the public, but he knew the military had
already covered up the massacre of journalists and civilians and did not
want another My Lai-type event on its hands.

I don’t believe the charge against Assange. If Wikileaks cracked the
code for Manning, Wikileaks did not need Manning.

The alleged Grand Jury that allegedly produced the indictment was
conducted in secret over many years as Washington searched for something
that might be pinned on Assange. If there actually was a grand jury, the
jurors were devoid of integrity, but how do we know there was a grand
jury? Why should we believe anything Washington says after "Saddam
Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction," "Assad’s use of chemical weapons
against his own people," "Iranian nukes," "Russian invasion of Ukraine,"
"Russiagate," and on and on ad infinitum. Why believe Washington is
telling the truth this time?

As the grand jury was secret because of "national security," will the
trial also be secret and the evidence secret? Is what we have here a
Star Chamber proceeding in which a person is indicted in secret and
convicted in secret on secret evidence? This is the procedure used by
tyrannical governments who have no case against the person they intend
to destroy.

The governments in Washington, London, and Quito are so shameless that
they do not mind demonstrating to the entire world their lawlessness and
lack of integrity. [...]

Roberts: As soon as corrections are made to Wikipedia, they are erased
and the smears reinstalled.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/04/11/the-problem-with-wikipedia-and-the-digital-revolution/

The Problem with Wikipedia and the Digital Revolution

By Paul Craig Roberts | Apr 12, 2019

In The Matrix in which we live, truth-tellers are unwelcome to those who
control the explanations in order to advance their agendas.

On April 10, 2019, a reader alerted me to the fact that I am being
smeared on Wikipedia as a "vocal supporter of the current Russian
government and its policies." The reader also reports that an article in
the Daily Beast calls me a "Putin worshiper." The reader says that he
tried to edit the Wikipedia entry without success, and he urged me to
give it my attention.

I do not know whether the person who wrote my Wikipedia entry intended
to smear me or is merely uninformed. However, dissenting voices do get
smeared on Wikipedia. It is an ongoing problem for many of us. For years
readers and people who know me would make corrections to my Wikipedia
biography, but as soon as the corrections were made, they would be
erased and the smears reinstalled. [...]

(4) IMF approves $4.2bn loan for Ecuador - in return for kicking Assange
out of London embassy
https://www.enca.com/business/imf-approves-42bn-loan-ecuador

IMF approves $4.2bn loan for Ecuador

Tuesday 12 March 2019 - 11:05am

AFP

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund on Monday approved a
$4.2-billion, three-year loan for Ecuador, part of a broader aid package
to help support the government's economic reform program.

The Washington-based lender agreed to the terms of the financing late
last month, and the final approval of the IMF board on Monday releases
the first installment of $652-million.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the aid will support the
government's efforts to shore up its finances, including a wage
"realignment," gradual lowering of fuel subsidies, and reduction of
public debt.

"The savings generated by these measures will allow for an increase in
social assistance spending over the course of the program," Lagarde said
in a statement, stressing that "Protecting the poor and most vulnerable
segments in society is a key objective" of the program.

Quito is expected to receive another $6-billion from the Development
Bank of Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World
Bank and the Latin American Reserve Fund.

WATCH: IMF's Lagarde says state capture inquiry good for SA

"The Ecuadoran authorities are implementing a comprehensive reform
program aimed at modernizing the economy and paving the way for strong,
sustained, and equitable growth," Lagarde said.

IMF performs periodic reviews of its loans to ensure governments are
following through on its policy pledge and then releases funds in
installments.

(5) Assange arrested for revealing CIA Vault 7 tools to hack computers &
phones

CIA Vault 7 can make its hacks them look "Russian" or "Iranian" by
inserting foreign language strings into their  source code

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/04/assange-vault-7.html#more

April 13, 2019

CIA's Vault 7 Files Launched New Case Against Assange - Attack Intends
To Prevent Further Leaks

After the arrest of Julian Assange by British police and the unsealing
of the U.S. indictment against him, the question is why is the U.S.
doing this and why now?

The indictment alleges that Assange 'conspired' with Chelsea Manning by
giving support to her attempt to find a password to an account that
would have allowed her to conceal her pilfering of U.S. documents. Glenn
Greenwald argues that the case is quite thin and clearly an attack on
press freedom. That a reporter or editor has to help a source to conceal
its identity is part of the job description.

The Obama administration, not known for reluctance to go after
whistleblowers, had already weighted the 'conspired' case and decided
against prosecuting it.

It is thus likely that the case, as unsealed now, is only a pretext to
extradite Assange from Britain. The real case will only get unsealed if
and when Assange is in U.S. custody.

National security reporter William Arkin, who left NBC News over its
warmongering, is likely right when he writes that the issue behind this
is Wikileaks' publishing of the CIA's hacking tools known as Vault 7.

While the publishing of the Vault 7 files received little coverage in
the media, it seriously damaged to the CIA's capabilities. Arkin wrote
on April 11 about the Vault 7 connection. The Guardian and the Daily
Beast were offered the piece but declined to publish it:

The American case, which shifted completely in March 2017, is based up
WikiLeaks’ publications of the so-called "Vault 7" documents, an
extensive set of cyber espionage secrets of the Central Intelligence
Agency. Vault 7 was little noticed in the emerging Russian collusion
scandal of the new Trump administration, but the nearly 10,000 CIA
documents that WikiLeaks started publishing that March constituted an
unprecedented breach, far more potentially damaging than anything the
anti-secrecy website had ever done, according to numerous U.S. officials.

"There have been serious compromises – Manning and Snowden included –
but until 2017, no one had laid a glove on the Agency in decades," says
a senior intelligence official who has been directly involved in the
damage assessments.

"Then came Vault 7, almost the entire archive of the CIA’s own hacking
group," the official says. "The CIA went ballistic at the breach." The
official is referring to a little known CIA organization called the
Center for Cyber Intelligence, a then unknown counterpart to the
National Security Agency, and one that conducts and oversees the covert
hacking efforts of the U.S. government.

Wikileaks acquired the Vault 7 files in late 2016 or early 2017. In
January 2017 a lawyer for Julian Assange tried to make a deal with the
U.S. government. Assange would refrain from publishing some critical
content of the Vault 7 files in exchange for limited immunity and safe
passage to talk with U.S. officials. One issue to be talked about was
the sourcing of the DNC files which Wikileaks published. U.S. officials
in the anti-Trump camp claimed that Russia had hacked the DNC servers.
Assange consistently said that Russia was not the source of the
published files. He offered technical evidence to prove that.

On March 23 2017 Wikileaks published some Vault 7 files of minor interest.

The Justice Department wanted a deal and made on offer to Assange. But
intervention from then FBI director Comey sabotaged it:

Multiple sources tell me the FBI’s counterintelligence team was aware
and engaged in the Justice Department’s strategy but could not explain
what motivated Comey to send a different message around the negotiations ...

With the deal seemingly in jeopardy Wikileaks publish the CIA's Vault 7
files of "Marble Framework" and "Grasshopper". These CIA tools
systematically changed its sniffing tools to make them look "Russian" or
"Iranian" by inserting foreign language strings into their source code.
The publication proved that the attribution of the DNC pilfering and
other "hacks" to Russia was nonsense. The publishing of these files
ended all negotiations:

On April 7, 2017, Assange released documents with the specifics of some
of the CIA malware used for cyber attacks. It had immediate impact: A
furious U.S. government backed out of the negotiations, and then-CIA
Director Mike Pompeo slammed WikiLeaks as a "hostile intelligence service."

The alleged leaker of the Vault 7 files, one Joshua Schulte, is in U.S.
custody but still has not had his day in court. It is likely that the
U.S. wants to offer him a deal should he agree to testify against Assange.

In another piece Arkin expands on his first take by setting the case
into a wider context:

[C]oming on the heels of massive leaks by Edward Snowden and a group
called the Shadow Brokers just months earlier, and given the notoriety
WikiLeaks had earned, Vault 7 was the straw that broke the governmental
back. Not only was it an unprecedented penetration of the CIA, an
organization that had evaded any breach of this type since the 1970’s,
but it showed that all of the efforts of the U.S. government after
Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden had failed to either deter or catch
"millennial leakers."

The targeting of Assange is not only for revenge, though revenge is
surely part of the motive. The wider aim is to shut down on leaking:

The thinking of government officials – current and former – that I’ve
talked to is that shutting down WikiLeaks once and for all – or at least
separating it from the mainstream media to make it less attractive as a
recipient of U.S. government secrets, will at least be one step towards
greater internal security.

Assange will first be sentenced in Britain for jumping bail. He will be
convicted to some six month of jail. Only after that time will the legal
fight about the extradition to the States begin. It may take up to three
years.

Assange's greatest hope to escape an extradition is a change of
government in Britain:

Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn - 19:34 utc - 11 Apr 2019 The extradition of
Julian Assange to the US for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and
Afghanistan should be opposed by the British government.

The time it will take for the extradition case to move through British
and EU courts is likely long enough for Labour to win a general
election. With Jeremy Corbyn in charge Assange would likely be safe. It
is one more reason for the transatlantic establishment to prevent a
Corbyn win by all means available to it.

Posted by b on April 13, 2019 at 02:19 PM

(6) CIA Vault 7 Whistleblower Joshua Schulte passed info to Assange

https://sputniknews.com/us/201811011069405779-CIA-Vault-7-New-Charges/

CIA Vault 7 Whistleblower Hit With New Leaking Charges

04:03 01.11.2018 (updated 04:30 01.11.2018)

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed a rewritten indictment against
the 30-year-old man said to be behind the largest leak of classified
information in the history of the Central Intelligence Agency - Joshua
Schulte, who allegedly gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the
material for the "Vault 7" releases.

The news comes just hours after a letter from Schulte to the judge
presiding over his case pleading for something to be done about the
conditions he faces in pre-trial detention. Between being cut off from
access to legal counsel and shoved into the "box" at a notorious prison
for unspecified reasons, Schulte described the conditions as
"unconstitutional."

Schulte was arrested in August 2017 after allegedly leaking more than
8,000 CIA documents to WikiLeaks, which were published in March of that
year. Initially, Schulte was not charged for anything related to that
matter, but for child pornography.

It wasn't until June of 2018 that a 13-count superseding indictment was
issued against him, alleging theft of classified national defense
information.

One of the most renowned whistleblowers in CIA history, John Kiriakou,
said Schulte may face a difficult road back to good graces in the public
eye. Kiriakou is a 15-year CIA veteran who blew the whistle on the
agency's unconstitutional "enhanced interrogation" program, also known
as torture. He also hosts a show on Radio Sputnik called Loud & Clear.

"I believe that the Justice Department learned a lesson during the Obama
administration whereby whistleblowers had great public sympathy once
they were charged," Kiriakou told Sputnik News.

"That sympathy often lead to acquittals, such as in the case of NSA's
Thomas Drake, or short sentences, like in my case. What the Justice
Department has done to mitigate that is too frequently add child
pornography charges to new cases. We saw this in the case of Matthew
DeHart and now in the case of the Vault 7 whistleblower. In the DeHart
case, the judge acknowledged that there was no evidence of child
pornography. None," he said.

"I would not be surprised if the same thing happened in Vault 7,"
Kiriakou noted.

So why is the government so interested in getting Schulte? Former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern told Sputnik News that it's all about the subject
of the leak. "Julian Assange called it a ‘bigger revelation' than all
the stuff that came from Ed Snowden," McGovern said.

"The tool that they call Marble Framework," McGovern said, "destroys
this story about Russian hacking."

"What happened there was really significant, because that Marble
Framework, by the CIA's own admission, enabled this CIA division to hack
into computers or servers, disguise who hacked in, leave tell-tale signs
like cyrillic," McGovern said, noting that 13 days after the revelation,
Mike Pompeo "as head of the CIA, gets up and says, ‘You know, this
WikiLeaks fellow Julian Assange is a demon,' and not only that, but he's
‘running a non-state hostile intelligence agency.'"

An alternative theory to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack
coming from the CIA, pushed by the CIA-funded cybersecurity firm
FireEye's spokesperson, is that the Russians "wanted experts and
policymakers to know that Russia is behind it." FireEye is one of the
few organizations to forensically analyze the DNC servers.

Hours after a letter written by Schulte to the judge presiding over his
case was revealed online, prosecutors issued a new indictment against
him. The government accused him of continuing to leak classified
information in jail. Prosecutors say he passed off national defense secrets.

Schulte's letter to Judge Paul Crotty reads, in part:

"I am writing to you because I have been unable to contact my attorney,
review my discovery, or even assist on my case in any capacity for the
entire month of October. This is outrageous and clearly unconstitutional."

"On Monday, October 1, I was called down for a legal visit. When I
arrived, I was told I was going to the ‘box' for an indeterminate amount
of time while they investigated me for something they refused to tell
me. So I was handcuffed in prison and led away in chairs to the
notoriously inhumane torture chamber that is MCC's 9 South."

"My fellow slaves constantly scream, pound and claw at their cages
attempting to get attention for basic needs fulfilled. I've witnessed
men dragged from their cages and beaten and maced. An officer even
uncuffed an inmate and told him to fight away from the cameras. Abuse
runs rampant."

"This is true cruel and unusual punishment. If you would disagree then I
beg you come and witness for yourself what the UN Human Rights Board has
condemned and denounced as detestable, inhumane and un-American: the
s**t-filled showers where you leave dirtier than you entered; the flood
of the tiers and cages with ice-cold water; the constant blast of cold
air as we are exposed to extreme cold without blankets or long-sleeve
shirts; the uncontrollable lights that are always on as we are sleep
deprived."

"I was strip searched and my cell was raided early in the morning on my
birthday. Coincidence? Or birthday gift from the government?"

"How is it I should be subjected to this? Terrorists receive better
treatment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — I have seen the footage myself."

"I beg you Judge Crotty to read the first search warrant affidavit and
the government's Brady letter; the FBI outright lied in that affidavit
and now acknowledges roughly half of those lies."

Kevin Gosztola, a journalist who focuses on prisons and whistleblowers,
told Sputnik News he has heard of inmate abuse at the Metropolitan
Correctional Center (MCC), where Schulte is detained, though not at
South 9, the unit he is in. "I'm aware that there's another part of the
facility called 10 South that's been described when people share their
stories of solitary confinement. His letter describes very vividly what
is going on, and there's probably very little reason to believe that he
is making this up."

"We know that it's harsh. We know that the New York Times, for example,
has profiled this and even described this facility as something
comparable to Guantanamo Bay in its harshness," Gosztola said.

"Part of restricting people like this is intent upon ensuring that they
do not talk about what they saw while they were in the CIA, that they
don't share other classified information that they might know, other
sensitive details about what was going on in government," Gosztola said.

"This isolation is to prevent him from talking."

According to a former special monitor on torture and punishment at the
United Nations, the brutal conditions of solitary confinement at the "10
South" unit at the facility are a "punitive measure that is unworthy of
the United States as a civilized democracy." Schulte is at 9 South.

"If they had the goods on him, why wait 15 months? They're gonna try to
find someone to pin it on just to say that you can't do this thing,"
McGovern said.

"Am I saying that the FBI will lie? Yes."

"It seems clear that Schulte had extra reasons for them to rough him up…
and to subject him to cruel and inhumane punishment. Habeas corpus has
gone out the window; he's been held for over a year, and they won't tell
him what charges they really want to bring against him," McGovern said.
"They doubtless have these special compartments for people who are
accused of things like Schulte."

"I think that there's there's an element of the system that truly
pressures you into situations where you want to take a plea agreement
and not go to trial," Gosztola told Sputnik News. "And so, I think with
Schulte, he's got the case that involves WikiLeaks, he's got the case
involving what he allegedly leaked, but then he's also got these other
charges that stem from what agents say they found on his computer. He
faces a child pornography charge; he faces other offenses. And this kind
of pressure is, you know, 'We don't want you to go to court and
challenge us.'"

McGovern was arrested years ago at an event held by former General David
Petraeus. He was taken to central booking at One Police Plaza in New
York City, a hold facility colloquially known as "The Tombs," which is
at the same compound as the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

"It is a horrid place," McGovern said of central booking. "You're
treated like dirt. I can't say I was singled out for extra lousy
treatment because it was a very egalitarian treatment we got. It was awful."

"You can't lay down" because of the seating McGovern said, and "there
are roaches and stuff."

"I hadn't even been arraigned," McGovern said, "in comparison to
Schulte, all I can confirm is this is one hell hole."

You don't end up in 9 South or 10 South by accident, Gosztola said. "His
[Schulte's] case is something that has been given broad publicity by
media. And so the Bureau of Prisons marks your case. We know that in
other cases when you've had leakers or whistleblowers, your case is
marked because they know you have broad publicity. The case of John
Kiriakou was marked because he was receiving broad publicity. The case
of Reality Winner was marked, and now that she was moved to where she
will be in prison in Texas, they know that she received broad publicity
for her case."

"This is what happened — and seems to be happening increasingly. We saw
this with Reality Winner being in a pretrial detention in a county jail
in Georgia for over a year when other leakers had been allowed to be
free," Gosztola said. "And so now in this case, there's something about
Josh that the government has decided is dangerous to them, or they want
us to believe he's dangerous, so they have kept him in a cell, and now,
as he's describing, these are horrid conditions."

CIA Vault 7 uses cyberattack techniques & malware produced by other
hackers; disguising these attacks as the work of other groups and nations

(7) CIA Vault 7 hacking tools

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7

Vault 7 is a series of documents that WikiLeaks began to publish on 7
March 2017, that detail activities and capabilities of the United States
Central Intelligence Agency to perform electronic surveillance and cyber
warfare. The files, dated from 2013–2016, include details on the
agency's software capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars,
smart TVs,[1] web browsers (including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge,
Mozilla Firefox, and Opera Software ASA),[2][3][4] and the operating
systems of most smartphones (including Apple's iOS and Google's
Android), as well as other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows,
macOS, and Linux.[5][citation needed]

... Part 1 - "Year Zero"

The first batch of documents named "Year Zero" was published by
WikiLeaks on 7 March 2017, consisting of 7,818 web pages with 943
attachments, purportedly from the Center for Cyber Intelligence,[12]
which already contains more pages than former NSA contractor and leaker,
Edward Snowden's NSA release.[13]

... Part 5 - "HIVE"

On 14 April 2017 WikiLeaks published Vault 7 part 5, titled "HIVE".
Based on the CIA top-secret virus program created by its "Embedded
Development Branch" (EDB). The six documents published by WikiLeaks are
related to the HIVE multi-platform CIA malware suite. A CIA back-end
infrastructure with a public-facing HTTPS interface used by CIA to
transfer information from target desktop computers and smartphones to
the CIA, and open those devices to receive further commands from CIA
operators to execute specific tasks. Also called Listening Post (LP),
and Command and Control (C2). All of the above while hiding its presence
behind unsuspicious-looking public domains. This masking interface is
known as "Switchblade".[28]

Part 6 - "Weeping Angel"

On 21 April 2017 WikiLeaks published Vault 7 part 6, code-named "Weeping
Angel". Which is a hacking tool co-developed by the CIA and MI5. Used to
exploit a series of smart TVs for the purpose of covert intelligence
gathering. Once installed in suitable televisions with a USB stick, the
hacking tool enables those televisions' built-in microphones and
possibly video cameras to record their surroundings, while the
televisions falsely appear to be turned off. The recorded data is then
either stored locally into the television's memory or sent over the
internet to the CIA. Allegedly both the CIA and MI5 agencies
collaborated to develop that malware and coordinated their work in Joint
Development Workshops.[29][30][31]

Part 7 - "Scribbles"

On 28 April 2017 WikiLeaks published Vault 7 part 7 "Scribbles". The
leak includes documentation and source code of a tool intended to track
documents leaked to whistleblowers and journalists by embedding web
beacon tags into classified documents to trace who leaked them.[34][35]
The tool affects Microsoft Office documents, specifically "Microsoft
Office 2013 (on Windows 8.1 x64), documents from Office versions 97-2016
(Office 95 documents will not work!) [and d]ocuments that are not
[locked], encrypted, or password-protected".[36] When a CIA watermarked
document is opened, an invisible image within the document that is
hosted on the agency's server is loaded, generating a HTTP request. The
request is then logged on the server, giving the intelligence agency
information about who is opening it and where it is being opened.
However, if a watermarked document is opened in an alternative word
processor the image may be visible to the viewer. ...

Marble framework

The documents describe the Marble framework, a string obfuscator used to
hide text fragments in malware from visual inspection. As part of the
program, foreign languages were used to cover up the source of CIA
hacks.[76][77][78] According to WikiLeaks, it reached 1.0 in 2015 and
was used by the CIA throughout 2016.[79]

In its release, WikiLeaks described the primary purpose of "Marble" as
to insert foreign language text into the malware to mask viruses,
trojans and hacking attacks, making it more difficult for them to be
tracked to the CIA and to cause forensic investigators to falsely
attribute code to the wrong nation.[80] The source code revealed that
Marble had examples in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Persian.[81]
These were the languages of the US's main cyber-adversaries – China,
Russia, North Korea, and Iran.[82] ...

Frankfurt base

The first portion of the documents made public on 7 March 2017, Vault 7
"Year Zero", revealed that a top secret CIA unit used the German city of
Frankfurt as the starting point for hacking attacks on Europe, China and
the Middle East. According to the documents, the U.S. government uses
its Consulate General Office in Frankfurt as a hacker base for cyber
operations. WikiLeaks documents reveal the Frankfurt hackers, part of
the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe (CCIE), were given cover
identities and diplomatic passports to obfuscate customs officers to
gain entry to Germany.[60][67] ...

UMBRAGE

The documents reportedly revealed that the agency had amassed a large
collection of cyberattack techniques and malware produced by other
hackers. This library was reportedly maintained by the CIA's Remote
Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group, with examples of using these techniques
and source code contained in the "Umbrage Component Library" git
repository. According to WikiLeaks, by recycling the techniques of
third-parties through UMBRAGE, the CIA can not only increase its total
number of attacks,[70] but can also mislead forensic investigators by
disguising these attacks as the work of other groups and nations.[1][60] ...

Apple products

After WikiLeaks released the first installment of Vault 7, "Year Zero",
Apple stated that "many of the issues leaked today were already patched
in the latest iOS," and that the company "will continue work to rapidly
address any identified vulnerabilities."[88]

On 23 March 2017, WikiLeaks released "Dark Matter", the second batch of
documents in its Vault 7 series, detailing the hacking techniques and
tools all focusing Apple products developed by the Embedded Development
Branch (EDB) of the CIA. The leak also revealed the CIA had been
targeting the iPhone since 2008, a year after the device was released.
These EDB projects attacked Apple's firmware meaning that the attack
code would persist even if the system gets rebooted.[89][90] The "Dark
Matter" archive included documents from 2009 and 2013. Apple issued a
second statement assuring, that based on an "initial analysis, the
alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in
2009 when iPhone 3GS was released." Additionally, a preliminary
assessment showed "the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed
in all Macs launched after 2013".[91][92]

On 24 March 2017 WikiLeaks described Apple as "duplicitous" for saying
it had fixed security flaws: "Apple's claim that it has "fixed" all
"vulnerabilities" described in DARKMATTER is duplicitous. EFI is a
systemic problem, not a zero-day". Echoing the lack of trust in Apple
was the German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who wrote:
"Apple statement is not credible."[93]

Cisco

WikiLeaks said on 19 March 2017 on Twitter that the "CIA was secretly
exploiting" a vulnerability in a huge range of Cisco router models
discovered thanks to the Vault 7 documents.[94][95] The CIA had learned
more than a year ago how to exploit flaws in Cisco's widely used
internet switches, which direct electronic traffic, to enable
eavesdropping. Cisco quickly reassigned staff from other projects to
turn their focus solely on analyzing the attack and to figure out how
the CIA hacking worked, so they could help customers patch their systems
and prevent criminal hackers or spies from using similar methods.[96]

On 20 March, Cisco researchers confirmed that their study of the Vault 7
documents showed the CIA had developed malware which could exploit a
flaw found in 318 of Cisco's switch models and alter or take control of
the network.[97]

Cisco issued a warning on security risks, patches were not available,
but Cisco provided mitigation advice.[95]

Smartphones/tablets

The electronic tools can reportedly compromise both Apple's iOS and
Google's Android operating systems. By adding malware to the Android
operating system, the tools could gain access to secure communications
made on a device.[98]

Messaging services

According to WikiLeaks, once an Android smartphone is penetrated the
agency can collect "audio and message traffic before encryption is
applied".[1] Some of the agency's software is reportedly able to gain
access to messages sent by instant messaging services.[1] This method of
accessing messages differs from obtaining access by decrypting an
already encrypted message.[98] While the encryption of messengers that
offer end-to-end encryption, such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal,
wasn't reported to be cracked, their encryption can be bypassed by
capturing input before their encryption is applied, by methods such as
keylogging and recording the touch input from the user.[98]
Commentators, among them Snowden and cryptographer and security pundit
Bruce Schneier, observed that Wikileaks incorrectly implied that the
messaging apps themselves, and their underlying encryption, had been
compromised - an implication which was in turn reported for a period by
the New York Times and other mainstream outlets.[99][1]

Vehicle control systems

One document reportedly showed that the CIA was researching ways to
infect vehicle control systems. WikiLeaks stated, "The purpose of such
control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in
nearly undetectable assassinations."[100][60] This statement brought
renewed attention to conspiracy theories surrounding the death of
Michael Hastings.[101][100]

Windows

The documents refer to a "Windows FAX DLL injection" exploit in Windows
XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.[12] This would allow
a user with malicious intents to hide its own malware under the DLL of
another application. However, a computer must have already been
compromised through another method for the injection to take place.[102]

Commentary

On 7 March 2017, Edward Snowden comments on the importance of the
release, stating that it reveals the United States Government to be
"developing vulnerabilities in US products" and "then intentionally
keeping the holes open", which he considers highly reckless.[103] ...

This page was last edited on 24 March 2019, at 07:45 (UTC).