According to the website, a large archive comprising various viruses, malware, software vulnerability hacks and relevant documentation, was uncovered by United States government hackers, which is how WikiLeaks gained access to some of the data from the trove.
Last week, Assange sent an email to Apple, Google, Microsoft and the other IT companies mentioned in the documents. But instead of providing the companies with the details from the trove, WikiLeaks requested the companies sign off on several conditions before being able to receive the information, sources close to the matter told Motherboard.
According to a source, among the conditions is a 90-day disclosure deadline, which would compel companies to commit to issuing a patch within three months.
Earlier, Assange said that WikiLeaks seeks to work with tech companies to help them close revealed security gaps. This comes, as the CIA, for now, has apparently made no contact with the tech companies to disclose the vulnerabilities itself.
The expert said that IT companies should be very interested to receive the information.
"They are very interested in obtaining the details on how the CIA’s hacking tools work. Much of the leaked information gives no concrete details, but in order to fix vulnerability an IT company needs to know how hacking exploit works. This is why tech firms should be very interested," Demidov told Radio Sputnik.
Commenting on the condition set by WikiLeaks, the expert underscored that it contradicts with common practice.
"Common practice is to provide tech companies with the information on the vulnerabilities as soon as possible, even before making the situation public. A company wants to fix the vulnerability before any information leaks. Why is Assange asking not to fix them for a certain period of time? Honestly speaking, I don’t know," Demidov concluded.
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