Today, WikiLeaks released a massive trove of files from what it claims to be the CIA’s cyberintelligence arm. The non-profit alleges that its files show that the US’s foreign intelligence service has developed a suite of hacking tools to snoop on cellphones, computers, and even smart-televisions, without users knowing they’re being watched.
Today, WikiLeaks released a massive trove of files from what it claims to be the CIA’s cyberintelligence arm. The non-profit alleges that its files show that the US’s foreign intelligence service has developed a suite of hacking tools to snoop on cellphones, computers, and even smart-televisions, without users knowing they’re being watched.
One of the most shocking parts of this revelation is the list of CIA names for its alleged hacking projects: Some are exactly what you’d expect from a covert US covert agency, such as ”BaldEagle,” or “Hornet.” Others are truly amazing. There’s “MaddeningWhispers,” “MagicVikings,” and “Weeping Angel”—all of which sound like cards you might play in Magic: The Gathering. A few are named after internet memes, like “Philosoraptor” and “Candy Mountain,” and one seems to derive from the “Frog Prince” of Grimms’ Fairy Tales.
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Here’s the full list of the CIA’s desperate attempts at creativity:
One page in the WikiLeaks release appears to be a CIA developers’ thoughts on future tool names, many from a website called TV Tropes that outlines actions and phrases in movies and TV shows. One idea also references comic musician Weird Al Yankovic’s lesser-known song, “Albuquerque,” from the 1999 album Running With Scissors. The developer writes:
Just a list of tool names I would very much like to use at some point because they are awesome. These are mostly oblique references to things I like, tvtropes names that amuse me and situations or phrases at work encoded in toolname-esque obscurity.
Mendicant Engineer – reserved for the next tool delivered during a gov’t shutdown.
Starving Weasel – reference to the Weird Al song Albuquerque; “Hey, you’ve got weasels on your face”
Face Hugger – Aliens
Eldritch Abomination – tvtropes
Xanatos Gambit – tvtropes
Deadpan Snarker – tvtropes
Combat Pragmatist – tvtropes
Awesome McToolname – tvtropes
Chekhovs Gun – tvtropes
Humongous Mecha – tvtropes
Literal Genie – tvtropes
Monster Clown – tvtropes
Confused Undertaking
Discharge Tempest
Agonizing Neuralgia
Chronic Arthralgia
