Wikileaks Vault 7: CIA Tips for Git Workflow

Wikileaks has begun dumping a large number of files on the CIA's hacking tools. The dump is called Vault 7. It is a goldmine, not only for information about the CIA's activities, but also for information on things like how to set up a development environment or properly use Git in your everyday programming workflow. Here are a couple highlights from some cursory searches of the document dump:

CIA Git Tutorials

CIA Vim Tutorials

CIA Setting Up a Development Environment

How to Make Sense of the Wikileaks Clinton Campaign Email Document Dump and Controversy

It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from fiction in the coverage of Wikileaks' ongoing publication of internal emails from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, known as the Podesta emails. There are internet hoaxsters pushing fake emails that are not contained in the actual published files. There are junk reports from prominent newsy websites that are based on obvious misreadings of the files in question. There is Clinton campaign and Democratic party spin seeking to distract from the content of the published emails. There is Trump campaign and Republican party spin exaggerating the content and import of what has been revealed by the leaked documents. And so on. In this article, we'll provide a bit of context on the leak itself, cover some examples of how it is being exploited by hoaxsters, how it is helping to reveal the incompetence of newsy sources of information, and how it is playing out within the context of the presidential campaign itself. We'll conclude with some tips on how to sift through the bullshit.

NSA = Not So Adept: Hackers Loot Brash Stash Of NSA Exploits & Data

Who watches the watchers?  Apparently, now it’s…well, everybody with a computer.  A massive hack against the NSA has revealed a treasure trove of previously-private exploits and other data, and it doesn’t make our “security agency” look very secure at all…

If the future won't let us have space-war, we'll have cyberspace-war.
(Image courtesy techworm.com.)

Eyes In The Sky That Pry Via Wifi: Malware-Injecting Drones Swoop In To Spy

Hackers, in an ever-escalating bid to stymie security, have teamed up with an arm of one of the world's leading aerospace companies to create computer-death from above...

As usual, we're sure this is all to "protect your freedom"...
(Image courtesy youtube.com.)

WikiLeaks Publishes CIA Travel Tips: Nervous Travelers Beware

With the holiday travel season in full swing, millions of people around the country and the world are taking to the highways, railways and the skies to visit friends and family (or to escape them!) far and wide. Of course, the romantic notion of the old fashioned family Christmas pilgrimage was long ago replaced by the stresses and strains of modern travel: endless traffic, train and plane delays, and security protocols that border on the absurd. Fortunately for the frantic traveler, Wikileaks has just published two previously secret CIA documents detailing the spy agency’s advice to operatives on how to survive the airport security screening process.

The leaked documents have been put online as part of the anti-secrecy organization’s ongoing “CIA Series,” which is planned to continue into the new year, according to a press release. The two CIA documents published yesterday provide insight on how the spy organization trains agents to navigate the heightened airport security protocols that we have all come to know and love over the last 15 years. The first provides an overview on how to survive the "secondary screening" process in general, while the second provides pointers on how to pass airport security specifically when infiltrating the European Union.

Anyone who's ever traveled at all is familiar with the primary screening process. (If you're not, consider watching this George Carlin bit for a quick overview.) You wait in a series of lines, provide your boarding pass and ID to the relevant official, proceed through the new-fangled Rapiscan nude scanners and so on. A subset of passengers are then taken aside for secondary screening either because of flags raised during the primary screening process, or because they have been selected for random secondary screening.

However, the CIA writes: "Travelers can minimize the possibility of secondary by knowing how to prepare for and navigate the primary inspection and by avoiding to the extent possible the various triggers for secondary." Among these triggers, the document lists: possession of contraband (including weapons, drugs and electronics), irregularities with official identification documents, suspicious behavior (nervousness, anxiety), baggage (with contents that are inconsistent with the passenger's appearance, profession, ticket class, stated reason for travel and so on), country of origin, suspicious past travel patterns, and so on. The agency also notes the following factoids:

• Inspectors focus on body language.
• Travelers can legally be held in secondary screening for hours.
• Officials may telephone travelers' contacts to verify their stories.
• Officials can access national and international databases on the internet.
• Officials can collect additional biographic data and biometrics.
• Officials can examine belongings.
• Officials can copy or confiscate a traveler's personal electronics.

Read the rest for some interesting anecdotes from airports around the world. The report concludes with some common sense advice: "Consistent, well-rehearsed, and plausible cover is important for avoiding secondary selection and critical for surviving it. A frequent operational CIA traveler to Asia and Europe advises that the most effective prevention of secondary is to have simple and plausible answers to the two most frequently asked questions, “Why are you here,” and “Where are you staying.” Travelers should  also ensure before traveling that everything that offials can use to examine their bona fides—passports, travel history, baggage,  personal electronics, pocket litter, hotel reservations, Web presence—is consistent with" your official reason for travel.

Sink "Fin Fisher": Wikileaks Combats Spy Platforms By Releasing Software To Public

It's no secret now that governments routinely spy on their citizens, for reasons ranging from interest in actual criminal activities to simply wanting to try to intercept naked selfies.  However, now the team at Wikileaks has released the exact software used to spy on you, hoping that once it is more completely understood, it can be more effectively stopped.

As reported by engadget.com, Julian Assange and his colleagues have openly posted the FinSpy PC and Fin Fisher spy platforms in an effort to spur developers to update more thorough privacy measures against them.  The Wikileaks team also hopes to make it more difficult for governments to abuse the technology to root out whom they consider undesirable.  Australia, Italy, Pakistan and other nations have been proven to use the software against "dissidents" on their turf, regardless of what computer platform the suspicious party is running.

Although keylogging and webcam monitoring are among the elements of the revealed software, it is hoped that these will not be abused by the masses and if they are, that a quick antidote will be available soon.  Now we know what weapons the powers-that-be have chosen, we can fight them more intelligently.

Sometimes the surveillance state needs a faceful of e-mace.