Vault 7

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), and the operating systems of most smartphones (including Apple's iOS and Google's Android), as well as other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. A CIA internal audit identified 91 malware tools out of more than 500 tools in use in 2016 being compromised by the release. The tools were developed by the Operations Support Branch of the C.I.A. The release of Vault 7 led the CIA to redefine WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service.” In July 2022 former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks. During January and February 2017, the United States Justice Department was negotiating through Julian Assange's attorney Adam Waldman for immunity and safe passage for Assange to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and to travel to the United States both to discuss risk minimization of future WikiLeaks releases including redactions and to testify that Russia was not the source for the WikiLeaks releases in 2016. In mid February 2017, Waldman, who was pro bono, asked Senator Mark Warner who was co-chairman of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee if he had any questions to ask Assange. Warner contacted FBI Director James Comey and told Waldman "stand down and end the negotiations with Assange," with which Waldman complied. However, David Laufman who was Waldman's counterpart with the Justice Department replied, "That's B.S. You're not standing down and neither am I.