How many people specifically know where you are right now? Some friends and family? Your coworkers, maybe? If you’re using a Windows laptop or PC you could add another group to the list: the CIA.
New documents released on Wednesday as part of WikiLeaks’ series of CIA hacking revelations detail a method the agency uses to geolocate computers and the people using them. The agency infects target devices with malware that can then check which public Wi-Fi networks a given computer can connect to at a given moment, as well as the signal strengths of those networks. From there, the malware compares the list of available Wi-Fi options to databases of public Wi-Fi networks to figure out roughly where the device is.
Yes, Big Brother really is watching you, assuming you are using a Windows laptop. Macintosh, Chromebooks, and other operating systems were not mentioned so we can assume (?) those systems are not vulnerable to the hack.
You can read more in an article by Lily Hay Newman in the Wired web site at: http://bit.ly/2tracZI.
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Categories: Online Privacy & Security
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