NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: WikiLeaks CIA Leaks Appear Authentic

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has weighed in on the recently released Wikileaks #Vault7 documents, calling the release “genuinely a big deal” and stating that the documents look authentic.

Still working through the publication, but what @Wikileaks has here is genuinely a big deal. Looks authentic.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017

Snowden also noted that encryption apps like Signal that he has famously recommended people use to thwart the mass surveillance programs of the global surveillance state weren’t themselves what was hacked. It was the operating systems IOS and Android themselves, validating a long-time assertion of Snowden’s that encryption apps prevent mass surveillance but not targeted surveillance.

He tweeted “PSA: This Incorrectly Implies CIA hacked these apps/encryption. But the docs show iOS/Android are what got hacked – a much bigger problem,” referring to a tweet by Wikileaks that said the CIA can effectively bypass Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp.

Snowden was also employed by the CIA briefly as a contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Snowden later ranted in a series of tweets that the U.S. government secretly paid to keep U.S. software unsafe and that any hacker could use the holes that the CIA intentionally left open to break into any phone in the world. Adding that the decision to keep a hole in android and iphone software was “reckless beyond words.”

Evidence mounts showing CIA & FBI knew about catastrophic weaknesses in the most-used smartphones in America, but kept them open — to spy. https://t.co/mDyVred3H8

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017

The CIA reports show the USG developing vulnerabilities in US products, then intentionally keeping the holes open. Reckless beyond words.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017

If you're writing about the CIA/@Wikileaks story, here's the big deal: first public evidence USG secretly paying to keep US software unsafe. pic.twitter.com/kYi0NC2mOp

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 7, 2017

All morning users have been debating whether these documents are authentic with many agreeing with Snowden that they seem legitimate – there is far too great a quantity of highly specific information about intelligence operations, tools and targets for the documents to be fake.

A CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu, said: “We do not comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents.”

While Jake Williams, a security expert with Augusta, Georgia-based Rendition Infosec told AP that “I can’t fathom anyone fabricated that amount of operational security concern.”

So far we have learned the massive scope of hacking that the CIA deployed against “tens of thousands of targets” seems to have no limit to how deep the agency could penetrate consumer electronics.

Hacking everything from mobile phones – both Android and iOS – to computers on various operating systems and software to even Smart TVs.

The CIA even wanted the ability to hack vehicle control panels raising the question about potential covert assassination attempts.