On CIA WikiLeaks Debacle, How Vulnerable Are Users And What Can They Do?

WikiLeaks recently poured cold water on everyone this week when it released documents pertaining to alleged CIA surveillance of Americans using their smart TVs and mobile devices. In the aftermath, people are asking several questions pertaining to the revelation. The two most pressing queries, however, are just how vulnerable citizens are to being spied on and what can they do to prevent this from happening?

As Fortune notes, the documents that WikiLeaks revealed are not as cut and dry as the infamous group makes them out to be. For starters, the details in the documents themselves are far too vague to make any kind of definitive assessment to make a judgment on how vulnerable the American people really are from being spied on by the CIA.

Then again, even the broadest of impressions is enough to make people panic at the thought that someone might be watching them through their television sets in their own homes. As such, it helps to get some clarity with the situation. CBS News recently received a statement from the agency that goes a long way towards achieving this by answering some of the questions that are likely in the minds of Americans right now.

For starters, it would appear that the tools that the CIA is employing to spy on people using a variety of devices works on a targeted basis. This means that it won’t likely affect a huge portion of citizens unless they pose a particular interested to the agency.

Unfortunately, for those who really want to make sure that they won’t become the target of spying, it seems there’s not much they can do in the way of preventing the CIA from accessing their devices. While companies like Samsung and Apple are doing their best to make their products hack-proof via regular updates and rigorous security measures, sometimes the agency will just break through.