The CIA refused on Wednesday to confirm the authenticity of WikiLeaks’ “Vault7” document dump that claims to offer a look into the agency’s secret hacking program, but did warn that the American public should be “deeply troubled” by the disclosures.
In a statement being circulated to news outlets, a CIA spokesperson said, “We have no comment on the purported intelligence documents released by WikiLeaks or on the status of any investigation into the source of the documents.”
The WikiLeaks document dump on Tuesday, which was touted as the first part of a series of document publishes, shined a light on CIA use of malware that can bypass encryption protection in a wide range of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which can be programmed for covert recording. WikiLeaks also said the CIA has been investigating ways to manipulate the control systems of modern cars and trucks that could be used for covert assassinations.
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden chimed in on Tuesday, saying the WikiLeaks dump “looks authentic,” explaining that the program and office names in the documents “are real,” and could only be known by a “cleared insider.” He also pointed to what he said is evidence that the U.S. government is secretly paying to keep U.S. software unsafe.
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,” the CIA spokesperson said. “Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information that do us harm.”
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday, former CIA Director Michael Hayden echoed the “critical points” the CIA spokesperson shared about the CIA’s mission abroad to conduct surveillance in order to protect Americans and stressed that the agency has no legal authority to conduct electronic surveillance on individuals in the U.S.
“You have to go to a court. That process, that procedure, that culture permeates all the American intelligence agencies,” Hayden said. “So, although these tools are very, very powerful, all right, I’m comfortable knowing what I know, living what I’ve lived, that they are targeted against legitimate foreign intelligence targets. The scary part is that legitimate foreign intelligence targets use the same devices that you and I do.”
“What’s different now is we’re living in a world big data. Everything is data,” Hayden said. “When espionage of this nature takes place, it takes place like big data so we’ve got these massive leaks of [Wikileaks informant Chelsea] Manning, of Snowden and now what we see happening at CIA.”
