Wikileaks says CIA developed tools to spy on Mac computers
SAN FRANCISCO — The CIA developed tools to spy on Mac computers by injecting software into the chips that control the computers’ fundamental operations, according to the latest cache of classified government documents published on Thursday by WikiLeaks.
Although many of the tools were developed for older versions of Apple’s Mac software, the documents indicated that the CIA had tested one spy tool, called DerStarke, on a 2013 Mac and found that it still worked. The documents also suggested that the agency was developing a new version of DerStarke last year to work with current software.
The leaked documents were the second batch recently released by WikiLeaks, which said it obtained a hoard of information on the agency’s cyberweapons programs from a former government worker or contractor. The first group of documents, published March 7, suggested that the CIA had found ways to hack Apple iPhones and Android smartphones, Microsoft Windows computers, Cisco routers and Samsung smart televisions.
Apple had no immediate comment on Thursday’s disclosures but had previously said that many of the vulnerabilities described in the CIA documents had been fixed.
All of the surveillance tools that have been disclosed were designed to be installed on individual phones or computers. But the effects could be much wider. Cisco Systems, for example, warned customers this week that many of its popular routers, the backbone of computer networks, could be hacked using the CIA’s techniques.
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has offered to share the precise software code used by the CIA’s cyberweapons with the affected companies. But major tech companies have been reluctant to directly engage with him for fear of violating U.S. laws governing the receipt of classified information.
At a news conference Thursday, Assange criticized the government policies that restricted such communications but said that Apple had nonetheless been willing to work with representatives of his anti-secrecy organization.
Google and Microsoft, he said, had simply pointed WikiLeaks to its existing channels for anyone to report a security flaw.
The spy software described in the latest documents was designed to be injected into a Mac’s firmware, a type of software preloaded in the computer’s chips. It would then act as a “listening post,” broadcasting the user’s activities to the CIA whenever the machine was connected to the internet.
A similar tool called NightSkies was developed in 2009 to spy on iPhones, the documents said, with the agency figuring out how to install it undetected before a new phone was turned on for the first time.