WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Thursday that his organization is working with technology companies to protect them against the CIA’s alleged hacking methods that were detailed in a massive document dump earlier this week.
“WikiLeaks has a lot more information on what has been going on with the cyberweapons program,” Assange said during a press conference streamed on Periscope. “And so I want to announce today that after considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that fixes can be developed and pushed out so that people can be secured.”
He added that once this material is “effectively disarmed by us by removing critical components,” then WikiLeaks will publish the next wave of CIA documents it has in its possession.
In the first wave of what it dubbed the “Vault 7” publications, WikiLeaks on Tuesday dumped more than 8,700 documents that it claims reveal the inner workings of the CIA’s secret hacking program from 2013 to 2016.
The CIA’s malware, trojans and weaponized viruses have the capability of bypassing encryption protection in a wide range of devices made in Europe and U.S., including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows, as well as smart TVs, turning them into covert microphones.
The document dump also shows that the CIA had been investigating ways to manipulate the control systems of modern cars and trucks that could be used for covert assassinations.
WikiLeaks said there were tens of thousands of CIA targets and attack machines throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States, and claimed it decided to redact and redact some identifying information in the “Year Zero” publication for in-depth analysis.
Tech companies like Apple, Google and Samsung, whose products were mentioned in the CIA WikiLeaks documents, have commented on the potential security threat to their devices, and some claim that the latest patches and security updates are sufficient to protect consumers’ devices.
Apple suggested that the solution to protecting devices from any hacks is to do what the company always stresses its customers to do: stay current with security updates.
“While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement. “We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security updates.”
The spokesman noted that nearly 80 percent of Apple product users are running the latest version of their operating system.
The Vault7 publication of CIA documents covers a period of time from 2013 to 2016. The latest iOS update, 10.2.1, was released on Jan. 23.
Google put out a statement late Wednesday that was similar to Apple’s, touting confidence in its security updates for its Chrome web browser and Android phones.
“As we’ve reviewed the documents, we’re confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities,” Heather Adkins, Google’s director of information security and privacy, said in a statement. “Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections. We’ve always made security a top priority and we continue to invest in our defenses.”
WikiLeaks revealed a CIA project called “Weeping Angel” that aims to turn smart TVs into covert microphones. The CIA tried to hack into the Samsung smart TV, specifically the F8000 model, by working with the United Kingdom’s MI5/BTSS to create a “fake off” mode that allowed secret recording of conversations in the room.
Samsung responded to the WikiLeaks dump by saying the company is “urgently looking into the matter.”
“Protecting consumers’ privacy and the security of our devices is a top priority at Samsung,” the company said, according to the BBC. “We are aware of the report in question and are urgently looking into the matter.”
Microsoft also said it is looking into the WikiLeaks report.
While the CIA wouldn’t say whether the WikiLeaks documents are real, and would not confirm reports that it is investigating any leaks, it warned that any time WikiLeaks publishes something that could hurt the CIA’s ability to do its job is a problem.
“The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure designed to damage the intelligence community’s ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. “Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information that do us harm.”
