WikiLeaks publishes thousands of documents, claims they come from CIA cyber center

In a press release, WikiLeaks said the CIA “lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized ‘zero day’ exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation.”

That loss of control allowed much of the CIA’s hacking capability to become public and was given to WikiLeaks.

According to the statement, Tuesday’s release shows the “scope and direction” of the CIA’s global hacking program. That program is meant to target American and European products such as the Apple iPhone, Android phones, the Microsoft Windows computer software system and Samsung TVs, which can be turned into microphones.

WikiLeaks says its source “details policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency. The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.

“There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber ‘weapons,’ ” said Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. “Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such ‘weapons,’ which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade.

“But the significance of ‘Year Zero’ [the first part of the release] goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective.”

Assange was set to hold a live-streamed press conference Tuesday, but claimed it had to be canceled because Wikileaks’ Periscope and Facebook Live programs were under attack and not working.