WikiLeaks releases CIA hacks of Apple Mac computers

Yahoo – AFP, March 23, 2017

According to Wikileaks documents the CIA can inject a undetectable bug deep
 into the essential firmware of an Apple Mac computer that will not be erased
even when the computer is reformatted (AFP Photo/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)

Washington (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency is able to permanently infect an Apple Mac computer so that even reinstalling the operating system will not erase the bug, according to documents published Thursday by WikiLeaks.

In its second release allegedly from the CIA's arsenal of hacking tools, WikiLeaks also said that it appears the US spy agency has been able since 2008 to insert it bugs onto new and unused iPhones by intervening in Apple's supply and distribution network.

The release follows the initial publication on March 9 by the anti-secrecy group of thousands of pages of instructions and code from what it called the entire CIA arsenal of hacking tools.

The documents are generally believed to be genuine although the CIA has not acknowledged this.

The publication of the documents sparked a US counterintelligence investigation into how the documents leaked out from the CIA and made their way to WikiLeaks, with some people pointing fingers at the agency's use of private subcontractors as a likely source.

The newest documents focus on how the CIA targets Apple's popular personal electronics to spy on users.

They show the CIA developed a tool in 2012 called "Sonic Screwdriver" that can hijack an Apple computer's password-protected boot process from peripheral devices like adapters and USB drives.

By doing so, they can inject a undetectable bug deep into the computer's essential firmware that will not be erased even when the computer is reformatted.

The manual for the "NightSkies" bug shows that the CIA developed it in 2008 to be implanted physically in brand new iPhones.

"While CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a target, it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the targeted organization's supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and other shipments," WikiLeaks said.

The documents provide a glimpse into the workings of the CIA. One showed the agency urgently trying to adapt NightSkies to a certain Apple laptop.

The agency "has the opportunity to gift a MacBook Air to a target that will be implanted with this tool," one 2009 document said.

"The tool will be a beacon/implant that runs in the background of a MacBook Air that provides us with command and control capabilities."

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CIA blasts WikiLeaks for publishing secret documents

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CIA blasts WikiLeaks for publishing secret documents

Yahoo – AFP, Paul Handley, Rob Lever, March 9, 2017

Assange said WikiLeaks had "a lot more information" about the CIA's hacking
operation but would hold off on publishing it until it had spoken to tech
manufacturers (AFP Photo/Saul LOEB)

Washington (AFP) - The Central Intelligence Agency accused WikiLeaks of endangering Americans, helping US rivals and hampering the fight against terror threats by releasing what the anti-secrecy site claimed was a trove of CIA hacking tools.

A CIA spokeswoman would not confirm the authenticity of the materials published by WikiLeaks, which said they were leaked from the spy agency's hacking operations.

Nevertheless, said spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak, "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."

"Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm," she said.

Horniak defended the CIA's cyber operations, which the WikiLeaks materials showed focused heavily on breaking into personal electronics using a wide range of malware systems.

"It is CIA's job to be innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad," she said.

Massive leak

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA, describing it as the largest-ever publication of secret intelligence materials.

"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA," it said.

Graphic outlining technical objectives of CIA hacking schemes, according 

to a new document release by WikiLeaks (AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

The documents showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control one's car.

Most experts believe the materials to be genuine, and US media said Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a criminal probe into the leak.

The source of the materials remained unclear. The investigation could focus on whether the CIA was sloppy in its controls, or, as The Washington Post reported, it could be "a major mole hunt" for a malicious leaker or turncoat inside the agency.

WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors.

An investigation would come as the CIA is already enmeshed in a politically-charged probe into Russia's alleged interference in the US election last year in support of President Donald Trump's campaign.

WikiLeaks, which has stunned the US government with a series of publications of top secret political, diplomatic and intelligence materials, said the publication Tuesday was only the first of a series of releases of CIA hacking materials.

That raised concerns that the site could release the actual hacking tools it obtained along with the documents. Experts worry those could fall into the hands of anyone, including US enemies and criminals.

Tech sector scrambles for fixes

The WikiLeaks documents detailed the CIA's practice of exploiting vulnerabilities in hardware and software, without ever informing producers of them.

The CIA allegedly found ways to hack into personal electronics from leading companies like Apple and Samsung, Android phones, popular Microsoft software, and crucial routers from major manufacturers.

The documents suggest it can also infiltrate smartphones in a way that allows it to get around popular messaging encryption apps.

The tech sector was scrambling to understand how their products were at risk.

"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," Apple said in an emailed statement on the 

WikiLeaks documents (AFP Photo/Jack Taylor)

"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," Apple said in an emailed statement.

"We're confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities," Google director of information security and privacy Heather Adkins said in a released statement.

"Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections."

Samsung and Microsoft both said they were "looking into" what WikiLeaks revealed.

Encryption apps safe

Joseph Hall, a technologist with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights organization, said the documents raise questions about the US government's pledge last year to disclose vulnerabilities to technology firms.

That pledge means "security flaws should get back to the companies so they can get fixed, and not languish for years," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union commented in a tweet: "When the govt finds software security holes, it should help fix them, not hoard them and leave everyone vulnerable."

Companies that make encryption programs and apps targeted by the CIA said the revelations show the agency has not been able to break their software.

Open Whisper Systems, which developed the technology for the Signal encryption app, said the CIA documents showed that Signal works.

"None of the exploits are in Signal or break Signal Protocol encryption," the group said in a tweet.

"The existence of these hacking tools is a testimonial to the strength of the encryption," said Steve Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science researcher, in a blog post.

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Dutch detectives unravel 3.6 million encrypted emails sent by criminals

DutchNews, March 9, 2017

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Dutch detectives have gained access to 3.6 million encrypted emails sent by criminal gangs which will be used in dozens of prosecutions, the public prosecution department said on Thursday. 

The information in the mails will provide evidence for criminal cases, including murder, armed robbery, drugs, money laundering and other forms of organised crime, the department said in a statement. 

The messages were found on servers in Canada belonging to a Dutch company called Ennetcom. Last year, the public prosecution department won the right to have the Ennetcom servers copied and the seven terabytes of information sent to the Netherlands for investigation. 

Ennetcom was the ‘biggest provider of encrypted communications in the Netherlands’, the department said. The company also has sales points in South America and other countries in western Europe. 

The owner of Ennetcom was arrested last April when the network was shut down as part of the investigation. He has since been released from jail but is facing prosecution.

ABN Amro to fund its online banking unit MoneYou for expansion

DutchNews, March 7, 2017

ABN Amro is to provide additional funding to expand its digital banking subsidiary MoneYou, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. 

The state-owned bank hopes to attract hundreds of thousands of new clients throughout Europe to add to its present customer base of 500,000, which is largely in the Netherlands.

‘We plan to make MoneYou into an online bank of European proportions,’  said Frank Verkerk, who as chief digital officer at ABN Amro is partly responsible for MoneYou. The online unit was mentioned only once in the bank’s last 80-page quarterly report. 

In eight years, MoneYou has accumulated 500,000 customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria with a total of €20bn in deposits. This represents about 25% of the savings deposited with ABN Amro itself, the FD said.

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Facebook to start fake news checks in the Netherlands

DutchNews, March 3, 2017

Photo: Facebook 

Dutch news website Nu.nl and a group of Master’s students from Leiden University are to work together checking facts placed on Dutch Facebook pages, broadcaster NOS said. 

The aim is to weed out fake news which has been placed to deliberately misinform or for financial gain, Facebook’s Europe media chief Patrick Walker told NOS. While it is unclear how many fake news items are doing the rounds in the Netherlands, ‘we hope to find out through this initiative,’ he said. 

Facebook has launched similar initiatives in Germany and France. Posts which readers flag as being potentially fake news will be checked by Nu.nl and Leiden’s Nieuwscheckers group. If both agree it is fake, the item will be flagged as such. 

‘The aim is to give users more context, so they know better what they can trust and share,’ Walker said. Posts which contain fake news will not be removed. 

Elections

Several Dutch newspapers also have their own fact checking sections in the run up to the March 15 general election. The NRC Checkt section on Friday looked at claims by SP leader Emile Roemer that the Netherlands is the biggest net payer into the EU coffers. 

The paper concludes that Roemer is right in terms of the proportion of national income. But Germany pays the biggest single contribution and Sweden more per head of the population, the paper said. 

The Volkskrant looks at claims by D66 leader Alexander Pechtol that the EU’s treaty with Ukraine has been changed significantly by the prime minister’s intervention. The paper concludes that the actual treaty itself has not been altered.

French, international media unite against fake news

Yahoo – AFP, February 28, 2017

AFP's global news director Michele Leridon said media rivalry needed to be put to
one side, because "The core values of our profession are under attack," she
said (AFP Photo/FRED DUFOUR)

Paris (AFP) - A group of 37 French and international media outlets, supported by Google, on Tuesday launched "CrossCheck", a joint fact-checking platform aimed at detecting fake information which could affect the French presidential election.

The new venture includes Agence France-Presse (AFP), the French dailies Le Monde and Liberation as well as Britain's BBC News and Channel 4 and US financial outlet Bloomberg. The project is being run in collaboration with Google and the non-profit First Draft News.

AFP's global news director Michele Leridon said media rivalry needed to be put to one side.

"The core values of our profession are under attack," she said. "We need to respond together, and CrossCheck is a significant step in that direction."

The CrossCheck website (https://crosscheck.firstdraftnews.com) allows the 37 media partners to pool their efforts to expose false political and other claims and establish the facts, First Draft managing director Jenni Sargent told a press conference in Paris.

Each partner could then publish such verifications on their own platforms.

"We find it interesting to collaborate with other editors because we normally work in our own corners and a lone editor cannot respond to all the information circulating," said Le Monde journalist Adrien Senecat.

The new political fact-checking initiative will involve a total of some 250 journalists from the media partners and will cover the two rounds of France's presidential election, in April and May.

Anyone who sees or hears something they would like CrossCheck to investigate can fill in an online form -- anonymously if they wish -- either via the main website or the news partners' own websites.

All the fact-checking will be verified by at least two of the media outlets. If it proves a success the scheme could be continued.

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