Wikileaks recently caused a stir on social media by releasing thousands of documents targeting the CIA. Within the documents, WikiLeaks revealed secret hacking tools the CIA was using to gather their information. Technology company Apple has recently responded to WikiLeaks by reassuring their users they have nothing to worry about. Assuming you’ve updated your iOS, anyway.
It was on Tuesday WikiLeaks released what it has referred to as its “Vault 7” data dump. Within the data dump, the CIA has been accused of being able to hack into the operating systems of Windows, Linux, iPhones, and Androids.
According to CBS News, several security experts have confirmed the documents released by WikiLeaks appear to be authentic and legitimate.
What the CIA discovered
The documents have accused the CIA of discovering what has been referred to as “Zero Day vulnerabilities. According to the documents, the CIA never bothered to make the CIA aware of the holes in their security. Instead, the CIA decided to exploit the security holes. This gave the CIA access to all sorts of information. This even included encrypted messages.
Apple has already fixed the problem
Apple has reassured their users that they have already used the information provided in the document release by WikiLeaks to fix the vulnerabilities in their operating system.
As such, the technology giant is encouraging all of their users to make sure their operating systems on their Apple devices are updated to prevent them from becoming a hacking victim. After all, if the CIA was able to find and exploit this security hole – there is a chance other hackers were able to do the same thing. These vulnerabilities would have given anyone with hacking skills the ability to access your data.
What update you should have
The most recent update for iOS that Apple has released was on January 23 – version 10.2.1. The security exploits the CIA was using to hack into the data of smartphones, tablets, and computers took place over the course of three years.
