Wikileaks has released information related to the CIA and cyber espionage tactics used by the United States Government. The organization claims that the Central Intelligence Agency could potentially have access to devices of private citizens, including but not limited to smartphones, tablets, laptops, televisions and smart watches. The CIA has neither confirmed nor denied the accusation that it has plans to access these devices or has already used them to spy on US citizens.
WikiLeaks and government information
The group has been gathering information from government and private agencies for years. Heralded as heroes by some and criminals by others, the way they get their information is under suspect. The hacking once done by MIT pranksters has taken on a new definition. What used to be pranks like cars reassembled on the roofs of campus buildings in the late 1970s, has become a serious group of computer savvy individuals using computer programs and code to compromise what most feel are tightly secured government documents.
The faces behind WikiLeaks vary by age and gender.
There is no “type” of hacker. Although one unifying aspect is a common distrust of the government and a fear, either contrived or actual, of government and big business’s control and perceived ownership of information. The group was launched in 2006 and has been releasing data they collect since then in the interest of truly free information.
CIA invasion of privacy nothing new
The fact that the CIA is interested in its own cyber hacking and espionage is not a surprise. For years, the government agency has been suspected of either collecting data or at least conspiring to develop a plan with which to do so in cyberspace. The theory that the Central Intelligence Agency is part of a larger inter-government and big business conspiracy is nothing new.
Started around the time of WWII by then US president, Franklin Roosevelt, the CIA’s primary objective was to collect data on enemies of the state. The United States has always had an intelligence wing of the government. Intelligence and information collection is important to national security and the safety of the citizenry, a government’s primary responsibility.
WikiLeaks, and similar groups, question how far the United States government, specifically the Central Intelligence Agency, will go when it comes to the collection of data and what will be done with that information, as well as the public’s right to know that the information, they assume is private, is in fact being collected. The folks at WikiLeaks want the public to know that their information may not be as secure as they thought.