‘to share CIA hacking tools’ with tech firms

USA - WikiLeaks will hand over details of hacking secrets used by the CIA to technology companies to allow them to find software flaws and fix them, founder Julian Assange has said. Speaking during a press conference broadcast via Facebook Live, Assange on Thursday promised to give exclusive access to tech manufacturers after the latest document dump,which included allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hacked into smartphones and computers.

The whistle-blowing site also claimed the trove of 8,000 documents proved that the CIA and British MI5 military intelligence developed malware to infiltrate Samsung smart TVs and turn them into listening devices. “Considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the addition technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure,” Assange said, speaking from the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has been holed up since 2012. Once tech firms had patched their products, he said, he would release the full data of the hacking tools to the public. In response to Assange’s news conference, CIA spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak said: “As we’ve said previously, Julian Assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity. Despite the efforts of Assange and his ilk, CIA continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries.”

(aljazeera.com)