Hacked Devices

I have to admit that I am not very knowledgeable with a lot of technological gadgets. I don’t feel a need to own the newest cell phone, tablet, TV, laptop, etc. When I put my fairly old flat screen TV up in my new place my friend who helped me was disgusted with how old it was and that the frame around the screen was so “large.” It works for me. The only reason I have a Surface Pro 4 was because it was for my work which is the one thing I am super picky about. I’ll never figure out all the amazing things I can do with it as I’ve only used it for surfing the internet and creating my cartoons. I’m a very bad and lazy nerd.

So when WikiLeaks revealed hacked data informing the world that the CIA has the capability to hack into cell phones and televisions, I had some research to do.

Oh my god! The CIA is reading and viewing everything about you? Why at this very moment someone at Langley is laughing at your penis pictures stored on your phone. Well, not really.

When I say “not really” I’m talking about the hacking. You should probably still delete those penis pictures. It’s very doubtful the CIA is hacking into your phone, television, or Cuisinart.

WikiLeaks claimed that the CIA can “bypass” encrypted message apps such as Signal and WhatsApp and they gave the impression they were doing wide sweeps on the entire world population. I had not even heard of those two apps before. Do you know why WikiLeaks dumps thousands of pages at once instead of trickling them out? It’s because the press will run wild with the headlines before they can go through all the details of the documents. If they did that then the outrage wouldn’t be as intense as it is now. I’m pretty sure I’m the only political cartoonist in the nation who read the details of the CIA’s capability within those leaks. After you read it you still have to understand it.

What WikiLeaks actually revealed is that the encrypted apps work very well and the CIA has to develop more advanced techniques to target individuals one by one, not a wide sweep of multiple devices. You’re in more danger of your little sister hacking into your phone and using your twitter to announce your hemorrhoids to the world than of the CIA snooping on you. I seriously doubt spooks have much interest in your cat pictures, no matter how adorable you attest that they are.

The techniques the CIA is using to target individual phones is to use the apps the same as the user they’re targeting. These methods are not new and have been open information at geek conferences. The only new information is that the CIA is using them.

Did you understand any of that? I had to read this New York Times article three times. I lied. It was more than three times. Please read it in case I didn’t do a good job of explaining it here. It’s the best explanation to this entire WikiLeaks insanity.

I think the bigger news is that the CIA can be hacked into. Our president, who said he loved WikiLeaks, has been pretty silent on this latest cache dump. He’s the head of our government and it’s being threatened by the same hackers who worked with the Russians to help him become president. Now they’re still threatening our nation. It’s an uncomfortable position in that he swore and took an oath to protect our nation and also declared his love for our enemy’s handiwork.

WikiLeaks is trying to discredit our intelligence agencies as they investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. Let’s not forget that during our outrage at the CIA.

If you voted for Donald Trump and you still believe in him then you’re crazier than anyone talking to their vacuum cleaner.

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