WikiLeaks is at it again. A massive new set of documents believed to be legitimate just hit the organization’s website. Called “Vault 7,” the initial data dump is said to include more than 8,000 files. According to WikiLeaks, Tuesday’s release is only the first part of a series in the “largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.”
Vault 7 purports to contain a wide breadth of information of CIA practices, from ways to hack iOS and Android devices to a spying program called “Weeping Angel” that involves compromising smart TVs and utilizing their microphones for remote listening. As the documents are brand new, the scope of their revelations is not yet clear.
In its introduction of the data dump, WikiLeaks calls into question the CIA’s potential abuses of power, an inquiry that again raises questions about the organization’s timing and potential political motivations following its role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons,” the release states.