Wikileaks claims to have uncovered a new generation of US state surveillance which can access encrypted networks such as Whatsapp.
This release, dubbed 'Year Zero,' is part one of its 'Vault 7' series of leaks claiming to document new US spying capabilities.
"'Year Zero' introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of 'Zero Day' weaponised exploits against a wide range of US and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones," WikiLeaks said in a statement.
It continues: "This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorised manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."
Today's release has 8,761 documents which came from "an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina," according to Wikileaks.
It adds that these "techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide and Cloackman by hacking the "smart" phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied."
Experts beginning to go through the material said it appeared to be genuine, the AP news agency reported.
The leak is said to expose the extent of the CIA's hacking and surveillance operations, they will renew concerns that its capabilities are developing faster than the laws governing their use.
A CIA spokesman said the intelligence agency would not "comment on the authenticity or content of purported intelligence documents."
Wikileaks credibility has been undermined by suggestions that it is in league with Russia to release information which is damaging to the US - this has been denied by the site and its founder Julian Assange.
Additional reporting by IRN
