Wiki Leaks unveils Operation UMBRAGE

Well the CIA got caught with their pants down once again by Wiki Leaks. This time it comes in the form of 8,761 documents and files that were leaked in the first part of a series of leaks.For this article, we are going to look at the biggest piece of the leak. That is operation UMBRAGE. Below is directly from Wiki Leaks what operation UMBRAGE is.

“The CIA’s hand crafted hacking techniques pose a problem for the agency. Each technique it has created forms a “fingerprint” that can be used by forensic investigators to attribute multiple different attacks to the same entity.”

 “This is analogous to finding the same distinctive knife wound on multiple separate murder victims. The unique wounding style creates suspicion that a single murderer is responsible. As soon one murder in the set is solved then the other murders also find likely attribution.”

 With UMBRAGE and related projects, the CIA cannot only increase its total number of attack types but also misdirect attribution by leaving behind the “fingerprints” of the groups that the attack techniques were stolen from.

 UMBRAGE components cover keyloggers, password collection, webcam capture, data destruction, persistence, privilege escalation, stealth, anti-virus (PSP) avoidance and survey techniques.

 In short, the CIA has the ability to commit multiple acts/crimes and then blame it on somebody else. They study somebody else’s attack methods and use those techniques to commit their acts. When people come into investigate whoever’s technique they used would take the blame for it. Pretty dangerous stuff on its own but there is one more striking piece of evidence found in the report.

“The CIA’s Remote Devices Branch’s UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques ‘stolen’ from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.”

 This shows us that the CIA has been tracking Russia’s methods and that the data they found has been housed under the umbrella of Operation UMBRAGE. With all the supposed attacks from Russia on the United States as of late, this finding certainly raises concerns as to who is behind it. We will continue to follow this story as more information is released.