CIA Can Geo-locate Your Computer by Listening to WiFi Signals

By Aaron Kesel

WikiLeaks Vault 7 has provided great insight into the CIA’s hacking capabilities. So far we have learned they can hack into various electronic devices such as smartphones, TVs, and computers. Some of the CIA’s tech revealed by Vault 7 is outdated and over-hyped, but the latest revelation called project Elsa seems frightening.

Elsa is the code name for the CIA’s geo-location malware for WiFi-enabled devices like laptops running the Microsoft Windows operating systems according to WikiLeaks.

One of the scariest things about Elsa WikiLeaks notes is that once CIA malware is installed on a target’s system, it doesn’t even need to be connected to the Internet to function.

“Once persistently installed on a target machine using separate CIA exploits, the malware scans visible WiFi access points and records the ESS identifier, MAC address and signal strength at regular intervals. To perform the data collection the target machine does not have to be online or connected to an access point; it only needs to be running with an enabled WiFi device,” WikiLeaks wrote.