Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

CIA malware and hacking tools

wikileaks.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

771–780 of 1001 posts

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#771

Post by sand500 »

tannhauser23 wrote: post #298
gressquel wrote: post #245

I looked through the leak, they promised source codes, all I found was source codes from various public projects. For the CIA tools, there was only descriptions and guides to how to get it implemented and in use, not the actual source code.

Wikileaks said they have the source code but they're not releasing it for now: "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." Source: https://wikileaks.org/…

Send vulnerabilities to appropriate software vendor, wait 30-90 days then release to web publically?

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#772

Post by [deleted] »

tannhauser23 wrote: post #298
gressquel wrote: post #245

I looked through the leak, they promised source codes, all I found was source codes from various public projects. For the CIA tools, there was only descriptions and guides to how to get it implemented and in use, not the actual source code.

Wikileaks said they have the source code but they're not releasing it for now: "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." Source: https://wikileaks.org/…

[deleted]

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#773

Post by pmarreck »

ismay wrote: post #576
abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

He very clearly explained his motives for not doing so in the AMA, and he gave an alternate POL by reading from the blockchain. This whole narrative of Wikileaks not being neutral is a very weird story, because they've never published anything that wasn't verified to be true. Since that's something they can't be attacked on, it seems that the strategy for discrediting Wikileaks has now become to accuse them of associ…

If I hacked two people's private emails who were in some popularity contest, and they both contained severely incriminating things, and I only release 1 of those to the public, then I believe it is arguable that I have gone beyond mere truth-disclosure and on to outright manipulation.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#774

Post by zepto »

angry-hacker wrote: post #427
zepto wrote: post #261

When will people stop pretending that Wikileaks is anything other than an anti-American political faction that is allied with Russia? If Assange truly believed in transparency and a new kind of open democracy, he would stop preferentially targeting the US and get on with showing the world how all of our governments are the same in this regard.

But Russia is not even trying to show they care about democracy or all the rights U.S preaches. We already know what Russia is.

Are you suggesting that the two are the same?

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#775

Post by throwaway91111 »

abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

> This comment was immediately down voted on Reddit. Someone is seeking to control the narrative.

I can't tell whether or not this is a joke. A) of course Reddit is manipulated and B) a single vote is within the range of background noise, not signal.

A vote don't mean shit.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#776

Post by guest »

schoen wrote: post #686
swombat wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Journalism classes in Romania a few decades ago included exercises like: "Take this footage of snow in Bucharest and use it to tell a variety of different stories, e.g. 'Bucharest is paralysed by snow' or 'Bucharest enjoys fresh snowfall' or 'Bucharest efficiently deals with snow storm', etc". If we think that just because something is factually true no one is trying to fool us, we're quite the fools.

I'm reminded of the replies to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13445190 (about the Guardian story on WhatsApp). There Maciej, for example, said > I think the vaccine analogy is really helpful here. You can make true statements, like "vaccines can kill you", that cause massive public harm if they're not correctly contextualized.

Regarding the vaccine analogy I think the problem is opposite, that the positive sides to vaccines have always been accounted for but as soon as negative attributes are brought forward they're met with ad hominem or ad absurdum.

[Small rant] There are huge economical incentives to scold those who question medicines with high amounts of side effects. Do people really believe that big pharma doesn't account for a good share of the astroturfers online?

To give one example: In Sweden a vaccine for the pigflue caused narcolepsy in completely healthy young individuals. [End rant]

The problem here is not truth or how it's used to effect but foremost the missinformation that is blocking out all traces of it.

Truth helps any discussion and creates trust - which the vast majority of societies are built on (or used to be).

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#777

Post by rfrank »

anigbrowl wrote: post #754
rfrank wrote: post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What, exactly, have we learned here other than a spy agency knows interesting methods of spying? That the US government pays software companies to keep their products insecure [1]. Why do you believe that they aren't spying on American citizens? 1. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/839168025517522944

Government is always asking technology companies for backdoors so that doesn't seem like news to me, but you may well be right that it's never been documented before. To me this doesn't seem any different from the Chubb lock company teaching spooks how its locks are put together or somesuch. I have no opinion on whether they're spying on American citizens, I have always assumed they would do so sometimes in the cours…

Paying for it is different than a request, NSL, or other means of coercing a company to do what the government wants.

There are significant barriers to the CIA picking the locks of everyone in the world's door, that don't exist when it comes to spying on the whole world. The analogy isn't meaningful.

The people ICE picks up actually committed a crime.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#778

Post by throwaway91111 »

shard972 wrote: post #763
abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

> This comment was immediately down voted on Reddit. Someone is seeking to control the narrative. Reddit has been beyond terrible the last year and it didn't recover post election. There always used to be a bias but you could usually drill down into some good back and forths in the comments, now you will only find that if it even exists in heavily downvoted posts along with troll posts.

For the nth time, find good subreddits because the front page is terrible.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#779

Post by shard972 »

sushisource wrote: post #505
jMyles wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What exactly in the admittedly shortened list am I supposed to be upset about? That, with taxpayer dollars, the government of the United States is undermining the security of consumer devices around the world. Part of the difference between your worldview and the view of those of us who find this behavior childish and unacceptable is that you "expect a spy agency would be doing [this;] if they were not then [you] w…

You don't actually say why they shouldn't be doing this, though. Everyone with this opinion seems to base it on moral grounds around privacy, but in practical terms, is this really harming citizens? So far there's zero evidence these things being used illegally domestically. IE: Without a warrant. There is some evidence that they've prevented some wrongdoing with it, though. I get the theoretical moral argument. I ju…

> You don't actually say why they shouldn't be doing this, though.

It weakens the US position in the world, how many people are going to be thinking today "Hm, I have really sensitive information on my phone, the US can hack Iphones and Androids? Maybe I need a different phone."

There is a risk due to the US intel agencies having so much power over US technology that other countries will end up shying away from US tech.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#780

Post by throwaway91111 »

debacle wrote: post #585
criley2 wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russians do not have free press and the state controlled media allows them to use nationalism to strongly insulate themselves from criticism and foreign press. Combined with their propensity for assassinating dissenters and journalists, there is less willpower to resist the fascism. It's to the point now that things like this improve Putin's poll numbers, not hurt them.

> the state controlled media allows them to use nationalism to strongly insulate themselves from criticism Have you watched news in the US recently?

I'm certainly not seeing any insulation here.
Post reply on HN