Assange offers to help tech firms avoid CIA hack

WIKILEAKS WILL work with technology companies to help defend them against the CIA’s hacking tools, founder Julian Assange said.

In an online news conference, Mr Assange acknowledged that some companies had asked for more details about the CIA cyberespionage toolkit allegedly revealed earlier this week.

The documents describe in various levels of detail how the CIA bypasses security, to hack into smartphones and even hijacks smart TVs to spy on viewers.

Mr Assange said: “We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out.” After tech firms had patched their products, he would make details of the hacking tools public.

In response to Mr Assange’s news conference, CIA spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak said: “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.”

The CIA has so far declined to comment directly on the authenticity of the leak, but in a statement issued on Wednesday it said such releases are damaging because they equip adversaries “with tools and information to do us harm”.

Mr Assange began his online news conference with a dig at the agency for losing control of its cyber-espionage arsenal, saying that all the data had been kept in one place.

“This is a historic act of devastating incompetence,” he said, adding that “WikiLeaks discovered the material as a result of it being passed around”.

Mr Assange said the technology was nearly impossible to keep under wraps – or under control.

“There’s absolutely nothing to stop a random CIA officer” or even a contractor from using the technology, Mr Assange said.

Among the affected products are iPhones and iPads, Google’s Android phones and the Microsoft Windows operating system.