Former CIA spy: agency's tools can takeover your phone, TV, and even your car
22 comments
·December 15, 2025whatever1
icepat
I've also been told the key difference between a Land Rover, and a door-to-door salesman is you can close the door on the latter.
jmkni
I'd be very interested to know what this community's view on Mr Kiriakou is
He shows up on Youtube a lot, and is always a great watch, but is he full of shit or what?
lrvick
I am a security researcher and three letter agencies have talked to me more than a couple times about their interest in my work.
I got a used manual transmission easy to repair vehicle with no internet, no cell phone, I only use cash IRL, and the only device I travel with is a QubesOS laptop.
If the CIA wants to track me, they are going to have to work for it. I hope to waste as much of their time as possible.
tamimio
Well, these measures are a bit outdated. To be tracked now you don't need to access someone's personal devices. You can be tracked with flock cams, ring cams, or any other thousands of cams out there that are already recording you and logging your car and your details. That grocery store you went to yesterday? Yep, you are logged from the moment you are in the parking lot till you leave. Oh, you used paid parking a day later? Your car is logged too. Neighbor cams or building CCTV? That too. Your home address is also logged through many ways but primarily your tax filing and driver's license. Your home internet can be logged one way or another too, at router level (think of the many exploits against that). What about your laptop hardware? Definitely it isn't open source. Plus, have you checked your hardware if it's bugged? I personally know someone who ordered a laptop and an XYZ agency bugged his laptop (man in the middle) before it was delivered. A new laptop you order online and your bank info will trigger someone to intercept it and alter it in the middle. And many more details, like, are you sure someone won't stick an AirTag somewhere in/beneath your car to track you? FBI and DEA already used modified AirTags that won't notify anyone with an iPhone around to track drug dealers precisely. What about personal connections like friends and family or work that could be a weak link? and many ways without going into further details. So while your measures might work against some random internet attack or random stalker, against a surveillance state it won't. If they want to track you, they have all the resources (technical, legal, etc.) needed to do so.
pureagave
This was all released many years ago in the Vault 7 drop. What's new here?
DANmode
You mean for you, or the average reader saying “What’s a Vault 7 drop”?
47282847
> Vault 7 is a series of documents that WikiLeaks began to publish on 7 March 2017, detailing the activities and capabilities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare. The files, dating from 2013 to 2016, include details on the agency's software capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs, web browsers including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera, the operating systems of most smartphones including Apple's iOS and Google's Android, and computer operating systems including Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
> In July 2022, former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks, and in February 2024 sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment.
Bender
Just a reminder they can car accident anyone anywhere from anywhere and having an old car will not save anyone when a Tesla with AI enabled cloud cameras is approaching head on.
pureagave
Release thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13939422
Trial for leaker https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22226066
greenavocado
They're reminding you that they own you.
bell-cot
Probably nothing. Think of it as a PSA being re-run every X days.
jjtheblunt
that's like the every 6 months proposed new revelation that everyone around cats is supposedly schizophrenic from toxoplasmosis gondii, which a day or two later is debunked. then "goto 10" and the cycle starts anew.
DANmode
Wait, when (and how) did toxoplasmosis and bartonella amongst cat owners get debunked?
runjake
1. This news site is analogous to a tabloid. They're just rehashing info from K's appearance in a LADBible video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXtDH2IXKY8
2. While I don't even dislike the guy, let alone hate him, Kiriakou tends to make grandiose and controversial claims that get discredited.
3. Kiriakou hasn't been privvy to CIA tech since roughly 2004. Yes, before the era of modern smartphones, all devices were pwned. He's been doing the rounds on any podcast that will take him where he elaborates on these claims further and it's pretty clear that he doesn't have decent subject matter knowledge.
Can a lot of phones and TVs and cars be exploited? Yes. Keep your devices patched. And, don't do things that attract the CIA's attention enough that they're putting in the significant effort it takes to pwn your TV or car.
tl;dr: If you're in a position where the CIA is targeting you, worry.
micah94
Remember...sometimes the target doesn't have a smart phone or watch much TV so those people around a target become at risk. That could be YOU. https://theintercept.com/document/hunt-sys-admins/
strathmeyer
[dead]
alsetmusic
My taxes at work.
OutOfHere
These three agencies are opposed to the public having access to appropriate cybersecurity: NSA, NIST, CIA. The goal of government should have been to boost the citizen's cybersecurity, but it is the opposite. Americans are worse off as a result.
Just buy a range rover. Nobody can operate it. Not even the mechanic who is currently looking into it, again.