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The US is suing Edward Snowden over his memoir
The United States is suing whistleblower Edward Snowden over his memoir, Permanent Record. It claims the former Central Intelligence Agency employee and National Security Agency contractor violated non-disclosure agreements with both agencies because he didn't submit the book to them for review before publication.
CIA releases Bin Laden's personal files with malware warning
Yesterday, the Central Intelligence Agency posted almost 470,000 files (around 321 GB) that were recovered during the raid on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in May 2011. This is by far the largest release of material found during the operation that resulted in the al-Qaeda leader's death.
WikiLeaks: CIA has all sorts of tools for hacking your 2008-era Mac (updated)
One of Apple's big talking points is that Macs don't get viruses and that they're relatively safe when compared to Windows PCs. Well, WikiLeaks would like you to reconsider that notion with more info about Vault 7. The organization's latest dump is a handful of documents from the Central Intelligence Agency that detail, among other things, how the agency can infect a MacBook Air during its boot cycle via a modified Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter. With "Sonic Screwdriver," the CIA's monitoring tools are stored on the dongle and the machine can be infected even if it's password protected. Considering how dongle dependent the new MacBooks are, this sort of exploit becomes even more worrying.
CIA claims it can predict some social unrest up to 5 days ahead
Back in March 2015, the CIA chief began setting up a new office, the Directorate of Digital Innovation, to integrate the latest tech into the agency's data-gathering workflow along with boosting the country's cyber defense. According to its director, the department has helped the CIA as a whole improve its "anticipatory intelligence." Speaking at the Next Tech event yesterday, Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Andrew Hallman noted that, in some instances, they've been able to forecast social unrest and societal instability in other countries by as much as three to five days out.
Major CIA overhaul ramps up focus on cyber operations
The CIA is working on a major reorganization, and it's said to be one the largest in the agency's 67-year history. A big piece of the overhaul is a larger focus on operations in cyberspace, leveraging the latest technology in its intelligence gathering workflow. CIA chief John Brennan is setting up a Directorate of Digital Innovation to lead the charge, keeping track of and implementing advances on the cyber front, including advanced communications tech. As Reuters reports, the National Security Agency is typically on the edge of innovation inside the US government, but the CIA hopes an internal shuffle with help it keep up with the "pace of change." The new directorate will join the four other major departments that focus on Science and Technology, Support, Analysis and Operations. [Image credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
CIA admits to spying on US Senate computer network
Back in March 2014, two United States senators accused the Central Intelligence Agency of infiltrating Senate computers. Worse, they accused the CIA of hacking Senate computer networks and accessing files while the Senate's Intelligence Committee was actively investigating CIA detention practices. Following an internal investigation by the CIA, it turns out that the senators were right. "Some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between SSCI (Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) and the CIA in 2009," a statement issued by the CIA spokesman Dean Boyd says.
CIA adds social media functions that nobody asked for to its website
The CIA just revamped its website -- that's right guys -- the CIA has a website. Now you may not spend a ton of time trolling the government's various portals of information but the new and improved CIA website is a veritable treasure trove of data. The CIA isn't immune to the world around it, either, and its refreshed design brings with it a YouTube channel, a Flickr stream (we culled the photo you see above from there), as well as Quick Links for sharing on various social media sites. Now, we can't embed the best video we found on the CIA's YouTube channel (they're not that social yet) but it's called "CIA Overview," and is surely worth your time. There's a press release after the break.
