Wikileaks publishes claims of phone and TV hacking from CIA and GCHQ

Whistleblowing website Wikileaks has released its largest collection of US intelligence documents to date, which appear to contain a variety of secret insights into CIA hacking procedures.

It claims that the intelligence agency has the capability of turning iPhones, Android systems and Samsung TVs into covert microphones in order to pick up on conversations.

In the group's "Vault 7" release, founder Julian Assange claimed that the publication of the records provided a look at the "entire hacking capacity of the CIA", including the ability to use smartphones and televisions as microphones.

The records also claim to show that the CIA's vast arsenal of hacking tools have been stolen, and now potentially in the hands of criminals and foreign entities.

In a press release accompanying the release of the confidential records, Assange said that the leaks contained in its latest release were "the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency".

Assange questioned whether the development of such cyber "weapons" was an example of US intelligence overstepping the mark in terms of what it was allowed to do.

"There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber 'weapons'," Assange wrote. "Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such 'weapons', which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade."

Assange has been seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 after an extradition ruling related to a sexual assault case in Sweden, claiming that he will be released to the US for publishing secret government documents.