Wikileaks to Give Tech Companies Exclusive Access to CIA Hack Tools

21st Century Wire says…

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has revealed at a press conference earlier today that WikiLeaks will give tech companies which suffered ‘billions of dollars of damage’ when hacked by the CIA ‘exclusive access’ to its technical expertise.

Assange said the leaked information came from an isolated computer on the network at CIA headquarters in Virginia. He described the loss of the information as a “historic act of devastating incompetence.”

More on this report from RT…

RT

WikiLeaks will give tech companies which suffered ‘billions of dollars of damage’ when hacked by the CIA ‘exclusive access’ to its technical expertise, founder Julian Assange revealed at a press conference.

Speaking in a livestream Thursday, Assange said the leaked information originated from an isolated computer, separated from others in the network, at CIA headquarters in Virginia, describing the loss of the information as an “historic act of devastating incompetence.”

READ MORE: WikiLeaks says just 1% of #Vault7 covert documents released so far

Raising questions over whether the loss of the information was known to former US President Barack Obama or current president Donald Trump before being revealed by WikiLeaks, Assange also questioned if the loss had been shared with companies such as Apple and Google, which were made vulnerable by it.

“Potentially billions of dollars of damage” has been done by the CIA to tech companies, Assange said, adding trust has been damaged by the revelations, in both the US government and US exports. He later added that some of the fixes to devices exposed as vulnerable by the leak would be quickly fixed but others, including smart TVs, would be more difficult and take longer to fix.

“WikiLeaks has a lot more information,” Assange said, adding that “we have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out.”

“Once this material is effectively disarmed we will publish additional details about what has been occurring,” Assange added.

Tech giants #Apple, #Samsung & #Microsoft express concern about #CIA hacking after #WikiLeaks dump https://t.co/nailD7mqGs#Vault7 #YearZero pic.twitter.com/aMauSmWXs1

— RT (@RT_com) March 8, 2017

Answering a question that he admitted came from himself, Assange said WikiLeaks “fights for the rights of publishers, sources and media accuracy” and that the cyber weapon details being published were used to investigate journalists. “We want to secure communications technology because without communications technology journalists cannot hold the state to account,” Assange said.

CNN asked whether it was legal for the CIA to do this, per US law, provided the hacking techniques are used overseas.

“It is an unusual time in the United States to see an intelligence agency so heavily involved in domestic politics,” Assange said, when asked if the CIA was experiencing turmoil within its ranks.

When questioned about redactions, Assange said 78,000 pieces of information were withheld, consisting of IP addresses of both target and attack machines. The IPs will be investigated and identified before the redaction is removed…

Continue this story at RT

READ MORE WIKILEAKS AT: 21st Century Wire WIKILEAKS Files

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