WikiLeaks released on Tuesday what the whistleblower group claimed were thousands of secret CIA files showing how U.S. spies hack smartphones, as well as exposing a major secret listening post in Germany.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, and in a statement the CIA would not say whether the files are authentic.

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

However, several current and former intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ABC News the documents appear to be authentic and likely have origins at the National Security Agency, where most national security hacking of overseas targets occurs.

“Somebody really screwed up to let this get out,” a former official familiar with the activities outlined in the WikiLeaks-released files told ABC News.

WikiLeaks said a former government contractor leaked the tranche of files.

“Recently, 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. This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive,” WikiLeaks said in a statement accompanying more than 8,000 pages of documents.

The WikiLeaks files also revealed that the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt is a major hacker outpost for the most important and sensitive operations, and a former official confirmed that it is the major nerve center for covert joint CIA and National Security Agency voice collection around the globe. The official said it was the likely origin of the hacking of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal phone — which was revealed in a leak by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

In fact, many of the hacker tools and files referred to in the documents appear to be the NSA’s, in the possession of the CIA rather than the CIA’s capabilities, an official said.

“There are only specific people at [the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence] who are allowed to see tailored access operations products by NSA hackers,” the official told ABC News.

The U.K.’s signals intelligence spy agency GCHQ, for example, is known to conduct proxy cyberactivities in places where the U.S. faces legal restrictions the British government does not have to contend with, a former official involved in hacking said. That intelligence is often shared with or gathered at the behest of American spy services.

The current and former officials could not corroborate WikiLeaks’ claim that a former contractor was behind the massive security breach but said it was very possible, if not highly likely.

“I’m not denying there are people leaking information,” Tyler Wood, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency cyberprograms official, told ABC News today.

The leaked files show a large effort undertaken by CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence to find ways to turn consumer electronic devices — from smart TVs to Google Android and Apple IOS devices, including smartphones and tablets — into remotely activated spy devices. The files detail efforts made to access messages before they are encrypted by security apps and to turn on phones and activate tablet cameras and microphones without owners’ awareness. An entire office at CCI is devoted to exploiting mobile smart devices, the documents suggest.

While Snowden, in hiding in Russia and still wanted by U.S. authorities for his breach, tweeted today that the CIA files reveal a “security hole the CIA left open to break into any iPhone in the world,” an official familiar with such intelligence activities said usually a human spy is necessary — a “cyber middleman” — who can first gain physical access to a device. That is an often dangerous task and is rarely accomplished, the official told ABC News.

The programs revealed today have a series of cover names, such as BrutalKangaroo, RickyBobby, AfterMidnight and WeepingAngel — the last being the name of a set of characters in the BBC sci-fi drama “Dr. Who.”

Countless intelligence programs with similar cover names — approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in a lengthy process — had to be renamed after Snowden blew the lid on those activities.

“And everything will have to be renamed after this,” an official familiar with many of the named programs told ABC News.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said Americans should pay attention to such breaches that reveal vulnerabilities to privacy and national security.

“This is of the utmost seriousness. If they can hack into the CIA, they can hack into anybody,” he said today.

Many cybersecurity experts on social media after the leaks focused attention on the apparent capability of U.S. intelligence to hack smart devices such as Samsung smart TVs, which the leaked files said can be in “fake off mode” when in reality the microphone is turned into a room-listening device without anyone nearby knowing it because the TV appears to be off.

“Pretty much anything can be made into an eavesdropping device,” said a former official.

Samsung, in its user manuals’ privacy statement, warns users that their speech can be transmitted through the internet to third parties.

In the last 10 years, WikiLeaks has published an incredible amount of secret U.S. information — about military operations in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and, more recently, Democratic National Committee emails hacked by Russian intelligence.

Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he is “extremely concerned” by the WikiLeaks publications on Tuesday, telling reporters his panel has reached out to the intelligence community for more information.

“We’ve had initial inquiries into the [intelligence community]. Look, this is early on in the investigation, but these appear to be very, very serious. But at this time, that’s really all the information that I have on it,” he said. “I’ve long said this — that emails and many of our electronic devices are not safe, and they’re primarily not safe from our adversaries like the Russians and the Chinese and others who are actively trying to get into government institutions and private businesses.”

Asked about supposed security vulnerabilities detailed in the documents that are relevant to its devices, Apple said, “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. We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security updates.”

“As we’ve reviewed the documents, we’re confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities,” Heather Adkins, Director of Information Security and Privacy at Google, said in a statement to ABC News after original publication of this story. “Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections. We’ve always made security a top priority and we continue to invest in our defenses.”

Samsung, when asked for comment, said, “Protecting consumers’ privacy and the security of our devices is a top priority at Samsung. We are aware of the report in question and are urgently looking into the matter.”

Last October, Trump as a presidential candidate said, “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks. And I said, write a couple of them down. Let’s see.”

In the regular White House press briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Sean Spicer declined to comment on the matter.

ABC News’ Matthew Mosk, Alexander Hosenball, Paul Blake, Cho Park, Benjamin Siegel and Elizabeth McLaughlin contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on March 7, 2017 and has been updated as new information has become available.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wikileaks-docs-allege-cia-hack-smartphones-exposes-frankfurt/story?id=45977302

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The office, along with the FBI, the National Security Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency inside the Department of Homeland Security, in a joint statement, said the hackers’ goal appeared to be collecting intelligence, rather than any destructive acts. They said they had so far identified “fewer than 10” agencies that were hacked.

The agencies said that the actor, “likely Russian in origin, was responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks.” The investigation is continuing, they said and could turn up additional government victims.

It was the first formal statement of attribution by the Trump administration.

Elected officials briefed on the inquiry and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously said Russia was behind the hacking spree, but President Donald Trump said it could have been China.

The incoming administration of Joe Biden has already promised a response to the SolarWinds hacks. On Tuesday, the top Democrats on the Congressional intelligence committees underscored that need.

“Congress will need to conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances leading to this compromise, assess the deficiencies in our defenses, take stock of the sufficiency of our response in order to prevent this from happening again, and ensure that we respond appropriately,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, head of the House committee.

Russian officials have denied involvement and did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday.

The penetration of departments including Defense, State, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce is already considered the worst known cyber-compromise at least since electronic dossiers on most Americans with security clearances were taken from the Office of Personnel Management five years ago.

Officials briefed on the case said that the main target of the hackers appeared to be email. One said that no classified networks seem to have been breached and that fewer than 50 private companies had been fully compromised, a lower number than initially feared.

The security company FireEye Inc, which was itself breached, discovered the new round of attacks, many of which were traced to a tainted software update from SolarWinds Corp, which makes widely used network-management programs.

It remains unknown how the hackers got deep inside SolarWinds’ production system as long as a year ago. Once there, they were able to slip “back doors” into two digitally signed updates of the company’s flagship Orion software.

As many as 18,000 customers downloaded those updates, which sent signals back to the hackers. At a small number of high-value targets, the group then manipulated access to cloud services in order to read emails or other content and potentially installed other back doors, making clean-up after discovery a daunting task.

A few major technology companies have said they had at least downloaded the bad code from SolarWinds, and Microsoft Corp said Dec. 31 that the penetration had gone well beyond that, allowing the intruders to view its prized source code, where they might have looked for security flaws. here

The attackers also hacked sellers of Microsoft services, which often maintain access to customers, to go after email at non-SolarWinds customers, according to security company CrowdStrike Holdings Inc and Microsoft employees.

Microsoft and federal investigators have not said how many resellers were hacked or how many customers were impacted.

The overall strategy of electronic infiltration through vendors, known as a supply-chain attack, is especially effective, and officials fear the success of the current wave will encourage more of them.

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Rescue teams evacuate wounded people outside the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels on March 22, 2016 in wake of the ISIS-claimed attack. (AFP)

Is the battle against the ISIS terrorist organization still ongoing despite its military defeats in Iraq and Syria? This question has started to trouble the Americans more than others.

A survey by the University of Maryland in cooperation with Brooking Institute found that 70 percent of Americans see ISIS as the greatest challenge to the US in the Middle East.

Is ISIS really still a threat to the US within its territories? Can we say that President Donald Trump’s strategy to combat ISIS outside his country’s borders was a success, but a failure on the inside?

Prior to his election, Trump had made it clear that he wanted to combat ISIS. After his election, he adopted a more hands-on military policy, albeit a decentralized one, in Syria by offering training and air cover. He also gave the military greater say in field decisions. The results were Trump’s success in liberating in 11 months 40,000 square kilometers of territory that had been occupied by ISIS.

The US military presence in Syria will not end any time soon with the defeat of the terror group. The troops will remain there to prevent Iran and Syrian regime forces from seizing territories that have been freed from the group.

In Iraq, the US-led international coalition played a central role in the liberation of the city of Mosul. Trump’s administration also played an effective role in pressuring countries to stop their terror financing. This weakened ISIS and culminated in the liberation of several other Iraqi cities.

ISIS threats against the US

Despite its defeats in the Middle East, ISIS has not stopped its threats against the US. American intelligence has been wary of this threat from the start. Former Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper had warned in an interview to CNN that ISIS was capable of launching attacks in the US similar to the ones its carried out in Paris and Brussels.

Trump’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has pushed the terrorist organization to renew its calls to launch attacks in the US. At the end of 2017, the group released online a photograph of a man wearing a scarf, showing the ISIS logo, with New York City’s Central Park in the background. The photo’s caption read: “We are in your home.” A number of other similar threats have also been made online, leaving observers to wonder if this was just part of a propaganda war or a precursor for an actual attack.

ISIS to American: We are among you

An analysis of this virtual campaign has led observers to believe that the real threat is now posed from splinter ISIS cells and not the leaders of the group itself. This is a more dangerous prospect than actual direct ISIS attacks. Why so?

When ISIS lost its Raqqa stronghold in Syria, it lost with it all of its professional media capabilities that were the backbone of its once impressive propaganda machine. As evidence, the recent New York photos appear amateurish and were likely taken by bloggers, not actual members of ISIS. This raises the disturbing prospect that ISIS may have won the social media war. Through online media, the group is able to reach and control new members, who have a tendency to extremism and stoke these sentiments to radicalize them. Most worrying is that the locations of these new recruits is unknown and their terror plotting will remain secret, making them much more dangerous than known ISIS members.

General Townsend and the US ‘caliphate’

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the former commander of the international coalition against ISIS, said that destroying ISIS’ so-called “caliphate” in Raqqa does not mean the destruction of the organization. He instead spoke of the possibility of the emergence of a so-called “virtual caliphate” where ISIS will seek to recruit new followers from all over the world.

A security or military confrontation against the virtual threat is useless. Such a war will need electronic measures to combat terrorists on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets.

Another danger aspect of the online war are continuous attempts by experts inside the organization to hack the emails of US officials, especially security and intelligence figures. ISIS had indeed hacked the information of US soldiers and diplomats, releasing their names and telephone numbers. In some instances, their home addresses and credit card information were also released.

Threat from the Caribbean

Very few people have been alerted to the potential terrorist threat posed by the small nation of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. Some 125 ISIS members have hailed from the country in recent years, prompting US authorities to label it as a potential extremist hub. The island is only three hours away from the US and despite the extremist label, it has so far flown under the radar of security monitors.

New ISIS members seeking to attack the US may arm themselves with new weapons by adopting “innovative terrorism.” An example of this may be mass cyanide poisonings in malls or even in food products sold at groceries, which may lead to a worldwide disaster.

Given these possible threats, the FBI said that ISIS remains the greatest threat to the US. This was confirmed in late September by bureau Director Christopher Wray. He said that ISIS, along with local extremists, are the greatest threat to the country. The FBI, he added, has continued to track down Americans seeking to travel to join ISIS and seeking to carry out terror attacks within the US.

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