WikiLeaks: CIA Program Used to Blame Hacks on Other Countries

Nick Kangadis | March 9, 2017
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Something might be rotten in the town of Langley.

Among the information released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday, it is being reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has the capacity to make other countries look like they hacked U.S. computer systems.

It’s not clear whether the CIA has used the program, known as UMBRAGE, that allows the government to manipulate hacks with the techniques used by other countries, or whether critics of WikiLeaks are correct in their assertion that founder Julian Assange is working with the Russian government.

This comes amid continuing allegations that members of the Trump administration colluded with the Russian government during November's election.

The Independent reports,

"The agency was cataloguing the hacking methods of outside cyber attackers, including those from Russia, according to files published by [WikiLeaks]. Once it had them catalogued, it could use them to break into other countries or people's computers or phones – making it look like a different country had done so.

"WikiLeaks made specific reference to the Russian Federation. Tensions between the US and Russia have escalated in recent months, in particular since American intelligence agencies blamed the hack of Democratic emails – credited with swaying the election of Donald Trump – on the country."

As part of the "Vault7" release, WikiLeaks wrote the following about UMBRAGE:

"The CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation. With UMBRAGE and related projects the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the "fingerprints" of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from."

So if this is true, the CIA could take the “attack techniques” of other countries or outside groups and use those techniques to set their enemies up for blame.

According to The Independent, the UMBRAGE project also includes "a variety of cyber weapons, including tools that can allow data to be deleted, webcams to be spied on and various other survey techniques..."

The use of this UMBRAGE program, if it has indeed been used, is enough to start wars.

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