Newly leaked documents show low-level CIA Mac and iPhone hacks
The CIA has had tools to infect Apple Mac computers by connecting malicious Thunderbolt Ethernet adapters to them since 2012, according to new documents purported to be from the agency and published by WikiLeaks.
One of the documents, dated Nov. 29, 2012, is a manual from the CIA's Information Operations Center on the use of a technology codenamed Sonic Screwdriver. It is described as "a mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting."
Sonic Screwdriver allows the CIA to modify the firmware of an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter so that it forces a Macbook to boot from an USB stick or DVD disc even when its boot options are password protected.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here