Megaupload and Bitcache Founder Kim Dotcom has highlighted the most striking revelations from WikiLeaks’ latest expose on CIA spying practices.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, the entrepreneur noted that the agency likely spied on US President Donald trump “24/7” by bugging his electronic devices.
“They used his phone cam & mic. Watching and listening 24/7,” he wrote.
The wider context involves the Microsoft Corporation in particular, with Dotcom highlighting how “CIA coders are working at [Microsoft] and that Windows is effectively CIA spyware.”
Highlighting similar implications, former National Security Agency Official Oren Falkowitz told the New York Times on Tuesday:
“We expect governments to be involved in espionage. What we don’t expect is that the people within these organizations would create vulnerabilities by disclosing them.”
The full leak involves 8,761 public documents in a release titled “Vault 7,” of which Tuesday saw only the first volume, “Year Zero,” go public.
Centering on CIA spying practices, it was found that the agency under the Obama administration built tools to spy on consumer electronics worldwide, turning them into microphones and data relay devices. Even Skype calls were logged, scanned and stored, Dotcom notes.
While it is not explicitly stated that Trump and his family were subject to constant surveillance, the summary literature states such events are “implied” by WikiLeaks.
It is not only the CIA’s controlled operations which are now under scrutiny. Vault 7 further details how the agency “lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal,” something which would give successful hackers “the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.”