‘GCHQ worked on six ways to target Apple iOS system’

control. The leaked files also appear to show evidence that GCHQ – the Government’s listening agency based in Cheltenham – collaborated with the CIA in hacking Apple’s iPhones as well as smartphones run on Google’s rival Android software.

According to the documents, GCHQ worked on six different ways to target Apple’s iOS operating system, used on iPhones, iPods, iPads and iMacs, as well as one for spying on Android phones.

In total, the CIA allegedly developed 14 applications targeting iPhones and 24 aimed at Android smartphone users. And, in so doing, WikiLeaks claimed the CIA was able to circumvent encryption codes used in messaging groups such as WhatsApp.

The CIA is also alleged to have exploited glitches in technology that the original designers are not yet aware of – called “zero days” – to hack devices, in breach of a commitment to tell technology companies of any identified weaknesses it uncovers.

Another document suggests the CIA’s cyber directorate is working on ways to infect computers in cars and lorries. “The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations,” said WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks said the data archive was circulated among former US government hackers and contractors, one of whom had passed on parts of the cache to it in order to start a wider debate. It is promising to release more documents.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ founder who remains inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he is evading arrest, said: “There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber ‘weapons’.”

WikiLeaks made headlines in last year’s US presidential election when it released personal emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign team, data which intelligence officials believe was originally stolen by Russian hackers. UK and US security services declined to comment last night but Whitehall sources stressed that spies have to act within a strict legal framework.