WikiLeaks has released damaging new information that ACA a project called cherry blossom has been hacking into home Wi-Fi routers since 2007 that's not all the CIA reportedly used that hack as a listening device and for more on this developing story were joined by cyber security expert and CEO of MGT Capital John McAfee welcome John thank you very much and so first I want to go back to Alexa's report I mean we just heard about a massive information being put out there roughly 25 terabytes worth of information being accessed without a password I mean just to be clear this information was not stolen by hackers it was actually there and without a password and I mean with so many of us having passwords on our phone how is this even possible well the hacking happens all the time the thing that concerns me is not so much the fact that the information was available all of this information you can buy from Google what concerns me is how did they get this information my phone number my address my age my marital status my preferences whether or not I believe in Obama care what do I feel about immigration what do I feel about our national policy every single political attitude is in that database for virtually every adult in America now should we be asking the question how did this data company even acquire that information that's what concerns me because once you get the information into a database it will be hacked it will be let loose this is just a fact of life these days and something we should be concerned about but far more concerning to me is how did it happen it happened because companies like Google and Facebook acquired data on every one of us what blogs we are visiting even our messages that we pass on Facebook or instant messages on Twitter are accessible and these things are collected so that we have no privacy what concerns me about this is if you look at the data in this 25 terabytes it's almost every political attitude a person could have and my phone number and the jobs that I've had and my health records please a lot of people's room I'm sorry go ahead yeah a lot of people don't want that information public especially their political stances I mean it causes so much friction nowadays I mean maybe your clothes daily members can know how you feel but you know publicly out there again a lot of people just don't want people to know but moving on now to WikiLeaks you know they just release those secret documents revealing that home routers from 10 different manufacturers can be turned into listening posts that the CIA can monitor I mean this sounds similar to you know those other devices like some televisions that are being used and listening devices so were you personally shocked at these findings well no I mean myself and every other security professional have known about this and I have been warning about this it's not just the CIA all of these routers and that's virtually every router that's in use in the American home I are accessible to hackers to the CIA that they can take over the control of the router they can monitor all of the traffic and worse they can download malware into any device that is connected to that router so I personally never connect to any Wi-Fi system I use the LTE on my phone I know that sounds crazy but that's the only way that I can be secure because every router in America has been compromised we have all known this and we've been worrying about it for years nobody pays attention until something like WikiLeaks comes up and says look this is what's happening then or goes oh but we've been saying it for years and and it is devastating in terms of the impact on American privacy our individual privacy because once the router is compromised and it infects the cell phones that are attached your your laptop your desktop computer your tablet then they become compromised and not only can you watch the data you can start listening to conversations you can start watching to the cameras on these devices so you're saying even when we go to something like say Starbucks and get on the free Wi-Fi that our information can be compromised Wow incredible in fact if you actually go to Starbucks and get on free Wi-Fi you're being very foolish because not only is the router compromised at Starbucks but there are people in Starbucks that have devices pretending to be Wi-Fi and you're connecting to them sometimes and they're monitoring all of your traffic reading your emails listen and your text messages here comes so this is the problem the fundamental issues we are completely blind as to our circumstances in regards to security I mean that's one and then you kind of laid it out for us but can you kind of recap what are your thoughts ethically with the CA using technology this way and do you think they have the right without the American people's consent of course not of course not there's nothing in the American Constitution which gives the government the right to invade the privacy of my home or any place that I am where I am I have the presumption of privacy of course it's not ethical if it's unconscionable and we have very few means of combating this my own company mg T is a product coming out soon called Sentinel which will prevent this from happening in corporations but nothing for the home yet and we're working on that but it will be six months to year before that comes out so we're totally helpless we are we are in a situation with our government where they know everything about us and we know nothing about what the government is doing Wow they have the right to privacy and secrecy but the individual does not anymore well good to know and it will certainly be careful on where we go online nowadays thank you so much John McAfee CEO of MGT thank you
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