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CIA faces huge problem over malware claims

comefrom: Leedo hits:0 date:2017-03-08

Already embroiled in a row with President Donald Trump amid his claims that spies are leaking secrets against him, now the CIA is facing its own damaging leaks.

This time it's the American intelligence community's familiar foe - Wikileaks - with another cache of what look like highly sensitive secret documents, this time about the CIA's technical capabilities.

The National Security Agency faced its problems when Edward Snowden passed on documents to journalists - but this time it's the NSA's sister agency.

While the NSA is the agency charged with collecting what is called signals intelligence and the CIA's job is to recruit human spies, the reality is that the technical and the human side of espionage have been drawing closer for years.

The CIA created a Directorate of Digital Innovation whose director told me the priority was making sure the agency stayed on top of technology.

While the NSA may sift global internet traffic looking for intelligence, the CIA prioritises close access against specific targets who it is interested in.

And getting into someone's electronic devices can be vital if you are trying to target them - either to recruit them as an agent or for a drone strike against a suspected terrorist.