Afer the huge uproar in people in fear of their privacy, the top companies Google and Apple have come out confidently that most of the vulnerabilities noted by WikiLeaks in the “Vault 7” release, only focuses on hacking tools allegedly used by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and they do not affect the latest versions of their wide range of products.
The Microsoft is yet to provide any information and it is now investigating the leaked documents. On the other hand, the Apple said that their initial analysis suggests that most of the issues found in the Vault 7 leaks are patched in their iOS operating system’s latest version. They pointed out that more than 80 percent of the customers are only running the latest release. Moreover, the company has promised to continue working and quickly addressing these identified flaws.
Even the Google is busy analysing the leaked data, but the tech giant is confident that the security updates and protections in the Android operating system and Chrome can protect the users against many of these exploits.
The files released by WikiLeaks suggest that the CIA has the tools and also capabilities needed to hack any type of system, including desktop computers, networking equipment, mobile devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
The vulnerabilities which affect the operating systems like iOS and Android could have a critical impact as they will allow the attackers to gain control of a device and then access the sensitive user information. Hackers can even obtain messages exchanged via secure applications such as Signal and Telegram without having to break their encryption.
Security firms have scrambled to assess the impact of the CIA hacking tools, but so far there is no evidence that the intelligence agency’s exploits are very sophisticated. A majority of the disclosed vulnerabilities have either been patched a long time ago, or they are considered low severity.