21 June 2017

CIA Reportedly Hacked Wi-Fi Routers For Years

By Steven Musil

The CIA has been hacking home, office and public wireless routers for years in an effort to carry out clandestine surveillance, according to classified documents seen by CNET sister site ZDNet.

The intelligence agency had by mid-2012 developed implants “for roughly 25 different devices from 10 different manufacturers,” including Asus, Belkin, D-Link, Linksys and Netgear, according to one document.

The trove of documents, part of an ongoing series of leaks released by the website WikiLeaks, could not be immediately verified. But they detail several hacking tool suites, which could allow the agency to conduct targeted exploitation of networks and computers, ZDNet reported.

WikiLeaks, the organization notorious for leaking highly secure government data, published a cache of documents in March that reportedly exposes tactics the CIA uses to hack into our devices. The leak suggested that the CIA may be equipped with a variety of tools that let it hack into your phone, smart TV, computer and router.

The CIA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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