I worked in Internet technologies from early 1990's through about 2004. From the time I first began hearing about CIA/NSA/and others being able to do mass scale hacks and break into cell phones, TV's and other devices to eavesdrop or infiltrate computers and exfiltrate data, I was highly skeptical. I knew the tech (so I thought).
What I didn't account for was a decade of advancement since my departure from paid professional work in that arena. When I heard about the WIKILEAKS dump on the subject, I figured I had a clue about what was there and as sensationalized as the reports were, I didn't think they were anything to worry about.
To all those whom I doubted, I say, "I'm sorry. I should have looked. I should have read more. I should not have been so dismissive."
Below are screen captures from the WIKILEAKS site that describe the various projects whose documentation and instructions were leaked as part of VAULT7 - code for some of these exploits was released in VAULT8.
When I first heard of some of the fantastic claims of being able to infiltrate voting/election systems through TV's and Thermostats, I was dubious and doubtful that there was any "there" there.
Read these carefully. These documents come from sometime BEFORE 2017 - meaning that those who had this technology in 2016/2017 have had AT LEAST 3-5 years to improve upon it and make it better. That's an ETERNITY in Internet time.
This is only a sample of the most relevant exploits. There are others that should cause blaring klaxons.
Whenever you hear, "Oh, Wifi exists but it isn't turned on." or "Yeah, they can 'see' the wifi device, but they can't access the data or exploit or inject anything." It should be considered to be an UNTRUE statement. ANY device that can be "seen" should be presumed to be hackable. Even some that CAN'T be "seen" (there were ALREADY exploits for AIR GAPPED networks that use USB drives in 2017!!!!!).
