CIA’s spying abilities becoming too powerful

WikiLeaks, on March 7, unveiled a massive leak of documents called “Vault 7,” and it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents from the CIA.

The first part is called “Year Zero.” It is almost nine-thousand pages long and WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange noted that this first leak was only one-percent of the confidential data that he hopes to release.

I cannot agree with Assange’s publication of hacked material, but I firmly believe that the CIA is abusing its power after the release of these documents.

These documents have revealed that the CIA has initiated a covert, global hacking fleet separate from the NSA. They use technology to hack into various household items and change them into covert microphones like Apple iPhones, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows and Samsung TVs.

The CIA’s hacking division allowed them to not disclose the information to the NSA, and they did not want to disclose it to the NSA because the CIA’s hacking powers are often controversial.

The source of the leaked documents to WikiLeaks said that he or she “has policy questions that they say urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the CIA’s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency.”

The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons,” (WikiLeaks).

I agree with this assessment of the issue.

As stated earlier, I agree with Assange because the CIA could be abusing its power by hacking on civilians. In the past year, Assange has released so many documents that are all true, yet his work can still get people into trouble.

Edward Snowden is a whistleblower who is not allowed in the U.S. anymore for leaking less information than “Year Zero” about the NSA’s spying capabilities in over three years.

Assange also claims that he retracts all   personal information from his publications; however, there are potentially many different ways that these leaks could hurt individuals or invade their privacy. WikiLeaks now promises that their material will not put anyone’s life in danger, but his work has before.

Back in 2013, Reuters published an article called “NSA staff used spy tools on spouses, exlovers: watchdog,” and this article stated that at least a dozen U.S. National Security Agency employees had been caught using tools to spy on the current or former spouses in the past decade.

The article ends by saying that the employees in several instances either resigned, retired, were demoted, given extra days of duty, had their pay cut or had their access to data revoked.

Our spying abilities are becoming too powerful. Too much power is given to the CIA and the NSA without oversight, and that can be disastrous.

Our enemies, and even loved ones, can obtain these abilities and use them against us.