Inside the CIA’s Secret Hacking Arsenal

On February 4th, 2017, WikiLeaks posted this photo of Svalbard Seed Vault with a question, "What is Vault 7?" Later the same day, another tweet. [music] This time with an archival photo of stolen Nazi gold. "Where is Vault 7?" And finally, "When is Vault 7?" with a photo of a jet engine. People went wild. You do not show a jet

engine on the internet expecting everyone to stay calm. Guesses ranged from WikiLeaks confirming a conspiracy behind 9/11 to unmasking a shadow government or an extinction-level event. The truth was, of course, a bit more reasonable. WikiLeaks is, or maybe was, a media organization founded on the premise of publishing secret or otherwise restricted materials. At its head was

Julian Assange, a hacker from Australia. Think of him what you want, but the guy has a flair for some artistry. Every leak on the site was published with build-ups specifically designed to rile up [music] the audience. The payoff wasn't far away. In a few days, WikiLeaks published a teaser story [music] about America's Central

Intelligence Agency hacking France. A taste of what's to come. Vault 7 wasn't about shadow governments. It was about the Central Intelligence Agency and its dirty deeds. The public was primed. On March 7th, 2017, the first batch of the actual leak was posted. >> [music] >> Breaking news. The CIA has lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal,

which could fall into the wrong hands around the world. >> It was cryptically dubbed Year Zero and contained over 8,700 files. A press release was there, too, editorializing some highlights. It went all the way. These files, it said, documented the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. [music] The leaked documents came from CIA's