iPhone

Following today's publication, by WikiLeaks, of documents exposing the CIA's secret hacking program - describing tools that can turn a world of increasingly networked, camera- and microphone-equipped devices into eavesdroppers, AP's Frank Bajak answers the public's biggest questions. Bajak warns consumers, there's "not much you can do if you don't want to sacrifice the benefits of the device," but offers a silver-lining of sorts for the average joe, the "tools that appear to be targeted at specific people's (devices)..

Thousands of CIA documents published by WikiLeaks on Tuesday reveal that the Central Intelligence Agency had tools enabling them to listen to private conversation on any iPhone device.   The Vault7 documents reveal that the CIA developed malware enabling them to turn iPhones, Android devices and Samsung smart TVs into covert listening devices. Under the codename “Weeping Angel,” developed in co-operation with MI5, the spy agency was able to listen into private conversations held in front of a smart TV – even whilst the television set was apparently switched off.

While it has been superficially covered by much of the press - and one can make the argument that what Julian Assange has revealed is more relevant to the US population, than constant and so far unconfirmed speculation that Trump is a puppet of Putin - the fallout from the Wikileaks' "Vault 7" release this morning of thousands of documents demonstrating the extent to which the CIA uses backdoors to hack smartphones, computer operating systems, messenger applications and internet-connected televisions, will be profound.

Sometimes the truth is hard to hear, like "Trump wins" and "Obamacare is failing." It appears, as a pleasant change, Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz dropped an uncomfortable truth bomb on the American people this morning - so used to getting everything they want (as a right) and never having to 'pay' for it - when he told CNN's "New Day" this morning that:

Wikileaks has released details of the wide-ranging hacking tools used by the CIA. 8,761 documents have been published as part of ‘Year Zero’, the first part in a series of leaks on the agency which has been dubbed ‘Vault 7.’ The whistleblowing organization claim that this is the largest ever batch of confidential documents on the CIA and that they reveal the breadth of the agency’s ability to hack smartphones and social media messaging apps such as  WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.