Vault 7, Wikileaks´ recently published plethora of documents and files from internal CIA resources, has created quite some excitement and noise, and it has even been compared with Edward Snowden´s NSA revelations.
My opinion: this is complete nonsense. In looking at what Edward Snowden has done - disclosing information on methods and extent of NSA´s mass surveillance activities which nobody outside the walls of NSA would have thought it would be possible - these latest collections of CIA authored configuration files and documents describing exploits and methods on how to penetrate end user devices, are not much more than a joke. Vault 7 documents show that CIA is doing exactly what we think they are doing and what secret services are supposed to do. Yes, they may be a bit more "cyber" than we thought they would be at this time, but this is it. No zero day exploits, not a single piece of real news. And not at all a reason to rethink cybersecurity.
Looking at the Wikileaks´ press release about Vault 7, one of the headlines says: "CIA malware targets Windows, OSX, Linux, routers". Huh, this is so shocking news for all of us. We should immediately throw all our gadgets away, switch off (better: unplug) TVs and fridges and call Assange to guide us through the evil reality of cyber, and be grateful to him as a hero of the 21st century, who is so much more important than Guardian-style real journalism. My recommendation: don´t feel alienated by such kibosh. Ignore it.
Ok, maybe one thing that comes into my mind while clicking through the contents: some of the Vault 7 files show that CIA cyber activities are very well stuffed and that they collaborate with the British MI5. But our German BND isn´t mentioned anywhere. This is worrying me a little bit, as it could well be that our guys are being left behind...