Vault 7 // The Biggest CIA Data Leak

Vault 7

The Biggest CIA Data Leak You Weren’t Supposed to See…

Manhattan. August 24, 2017. 5:30 AM.

“All units in position.”

In the early morning darkness, a dozen heavily armed FBI agents silently surround an apartment building.

“FBI! OPEN UP!”

Behind that door: Joshua Schulte, a 29-year-old former CIA programmer, who was about to be cuffed and accused of leaking classified data.

“TURN AROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK!”

But this wasn’t just any data – this was the CIA’s entire cyber arsenal. Tools that could turn your phone into a spy, your TV into a hidden camera, your car into a remote-controlled machine.

This is the story of Vault 7, the biggest leak in CIA history.

The Man Behind the Leak

In 1988, in the quiet suburbs of Lubbock, Texas, Joshua Schulte was born. He was a bright child, fascinated by computers. By the time he was in high school, he was building computers himself.

At the University of Texas, Schulte studied engineering and started developing strong libertarian beliefs. On his blog, he wrote, “I don’t want a ‘Big Brother’ constantly looking over my shoulder.” Ironically, these words would come back to haunt him.

By 2010, Schulte achieved his dream job at just 21: a role with the CIA’s highly secretive hacker unit, the Operations Support Branch. Hidden behind bland office park facades in Northern Virginia, through high-security checkpoints and badge-access doors, the engineers created some of the agency’s most sophisticated cyber weapons.

Inside their windowless sanctuary on the ninth floor, Schulte and his colleagues worked on classified programs with peculiar names like “AngerQuake” and “Brutal Kangaroo.”

Schulte quickly proved his worth. By 2015, he was promoted to system administrator, gaining control over the team’s development network. But his intense, confrontational personality wasn’t always appreciated, and it earned him the nickname “The Nuclear Option.”

The breaking point came through a series of escalating conflicts with a coworker. What started as office banter turned toxic, evolving into death threats and restraining orders. Feeling unappreciated, Schulte left the CIA in November 2016 for a higher-paying job at Bloomberg.

But four months after Schulte’s departure, on March 7, 2017, WikiLeaks began releasing thousands of classified CIA documents, codenamed “Vault 7”. The effect was immediate, a nightmare for the CIA. Sean Roche, a senior CIA official, would later call it “a digital Pearl Harbor”

Who could have stolen the data?

FBI agents worked around the clock. Was it Russia? Iran? No, the culprit had to be someone from inside – someone with direct access to the CIA’s most classified networks. Interviews with the team narrowed down the suspects. And soon, one name stood out: Joshua Schulte. The Nuclear Option.

To understand why this leak sent shockwaves through the intelligence community, we need to look inside Vault 7 itself. 

Inside Vault 7

When WikiLeaks published Vault 7, they didn’t just leak classified documents — they exposed the CIA’s entire cyber warfare arsenal.

These were sophisticated digital weapons capable of breaching almost any device, anywhere. Smartphones, smart TVs, Windows PCs, Mac laptops, Android and iOS systems—all were vulnerable. The tools could even bypass the encryption of popular messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram and evade the world’s top antivirus systems.

Let’s look at two of the most alarming tools revealed:

1. Weeping Angel

Like something straight out of science fiction, this tool turned your Samsung Smart TV into a secret spy. Even when the TV appeared to be turned off, Weeping Angel could silently record every conversation and send it to CIA servers.

2. Marble Framework

Perhaps the most advanced was Marble, a tool that cloaked CIA malware to make it look like it originated from another country. It could mask American cyber attacks to appear as if they came from Russia, China, or North Korea, leaving false “fingerprints” to mislead investigators.

Even more concerning, they chose to hoard security flaws in popular operating systems like Windows, known as “zero-day vulnerabilities.” Rather than notifying companies like Microsoft about these vulnerabilities, they withheld the information, reserving the ability to exploit them later.

The impact of Vault 7 rippled far beyond CIA headquarters…

The Aftermath

CIA operations worldwide came to “a crashing halt.” Years of work, billions of dollars, and the lives of agents in the field were suddenly at risk. The leak was so severe that the CIA reclassified WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service.”

Major tech companies scrambled to patch their systems. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others faced an unsettling truth: their most secure products had been compromised. Tools once controlled by America’s top intelligence agency could now fall into anyone’s hands.

The public, too, was deeply shaken. The idea that ordinary smart devices—like Samsung TVs—could be used as surveillance tools sparked intense concern and outrage.

What happened to Schulte? In 2023, after two trials, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for what the Department of Justice called “one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.”

Right or Wrong?

In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed how the NSA was spying on millions of Americans. In response, the Obama administration made a promise to tech companies: they would report, not hoard, dangerous security flaws. But Vault 7 proved otherwise. 

The CIA’s position was clear: these cyber weapons were essential for national security. “We are granted access to classified information to protect American interests,” one senior official explained. They argued these tools helped track terrorists and prevent attacks.

But who watches the watchers?

WikiLeaks decided to become the digital vigilante, uncovering these governmental secrets.

When they released Vault 7, WikiLeaks claimed the source wanted “to initiate a public debate” about cyber weapons. But unlike previous whistleblowers like Snowden who exposed specific government abuses, Vault 7 revealed an entire arsenal of legitimate intelligence tools.

The irony is striking. Remember what the ‘source’ aka Schulte once wrote in his blog when he was younger: “I don’t want a ‘Big Brother’ constantly looking over my shoulder.” Yet he would spend years building the very surveillance tools he claimed to fear.

Stay safe online.