• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Dashboard
  • EB5
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Government
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Login
  • Members
  • Meme generator
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Pick a New Password
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Profile
  • Recent comments by me
  • Recent comments on my posts
  • Register
  • Submit post
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Government

How The CIA Turned An American Pastime Into A Global Spying Apparatus

How The CIA Turned An American Pastime Into A Global Spying Apparatus
N&V Staff
March 7, 2017

(Eric Lieberman, The Daily Caller News Foundation) – WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy non-profit that publishes classified information, released a trove of top secret information Tuesday, including the methods the Central Intelligence Agency used to hack into people’s televisions and other electronics.

In a technique called “Weeping Angel,” the CIA’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB) would allegedly infest smart TVs and transform them into surreptitious microphones, recording people’s conversations with no detection.

WikiLeaks published the steps the CIA reportedly takes to infiltrate someone’s smart (internet-connected) TV.

Weeping Angel places targeted TVs in “Fake-Off” mode, which gives the owner the false belief that the TV is off when it is actually on.

Once in “Fake-Off” mode, the TV is essentially operating as a bug by recording conversations in the room and then transmitting the communications over the internet to a secret CIA server.

But it isn’t just the CIA that is accused of engaging in the invasive surveillance practice; the U.K.’s MI5/BTSS, which is also tasked with counter-intelligence and national security protocol, collaborated with the CIA on this initiative, according to WikiLeaks.

Published engineering notes from a joint workshop between the CIA and the MI5 reveal further tips for maintaining covert spying operations. The two security agencies suggest suppressing the LEDs that light up the TVs to improve the look of “Fake-Off” mode.

They also had a “ToDo” list outlining future priorities such as figuring out a way to “turn on or leave WiFi turned on in Fake-Off mode” and record with video.

“Samsung offers remote support – is this an area of functionality to investigate?” the notes read, likely referring to the agency’s interest in acquiring as many means of surveillance as possible.

The CIA’s Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) is also accused of hacking or at least developing the remote surveillance capabilities for other machines, like vehicles and phones.

The MDB allegedly researched into the prospect of hacking cars with autonomous functionality, a technology that so many companies are racing to develop.

For smart phones, the CIA would apparently infect the devices and instruct it to send the CIA the user or owner’s “geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone’s camera and microphone,” according to WikiLeaks.

The EDB and MDB are just two of the several sub-organizations in the long chain of command at the CIA. Some of the files WikiLeaks acquired are dated 2014, and the branches are likely to be utilized and expanded upon in the coming years, since smart devices are growing rapidly in availability and use.

 

Content originally published at The Daily Caller.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Prev postNext post

Related ItemsgovernmentTechnology
Government
March 7, 2017
N&V Staff

Related ItemsgovernmentTechnology

More in Government

Graves: Don’t Allow Subsidized, Foreign Sugarcane to Enter U.S. Markets

N&V StaffNovember 1, 2022
Read More

Some Cheerful News on Flat Rate Taxes

N&V StaffOctober 21, 2022
Read More

Conservatives Should Not Surrender on Sugar

N&V StaffOctober 7, 2022
Read More

Running On Empty

N&V StaffOctober 6, 2022
Read More

Help a Sheriff Fire a Corrupt Governor?

N&V StaffOctober 4, 2022
Read More

CCSD – MathLITE and Exacerbating the Teacher Shortage

N&V StaffSeptember 29, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Nevada Politics business Muth's Truths government Opinion Government Muth’s Truths Obama Ron Knecht News Donald Trump GOP Republicans

Copyright © 2022 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Wikileaks Docs May Have ‘Killed’ CIA Ability To Operate
Trump considering cuts to Coast Guard, airport security to fund border wall