WikiLeaks will allow tech companies exclusive access to the CIA's hacking techniques so they can prevent the agency getting at their data.

In an online news conference, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange revealed tech firms had asked him for more details about the alleged cyber-spying tools used by the CIA, which his firm leaked.

Mr Assange said: "We have decided to work with them (tech firms), to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out."

Once tech firms have patched their products, WikiLeaks plans to release all of the data - what Mr Assange called "a lot more information" about the hacking tools - to the public.

"Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring," he added.


Mr Assange was speaking two days after his anti-secrecy website published nearly 9,000 documents purporting to show the Central Intelligence Agency has been using smart TVs and other electronic devices to snoop on targets.

Image: Mr Assange accused the CIA of 'devastating incompetence'

He was scathing in his assessment of the agency, adding: "This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place."

Claiming that the technology was nearly impossible to keep under wraps - or under control - he said: "WikiLeaks discovered the material as a result of it being passed around.

"It is impossible to keep effective control of cyber weapons... If you build them, eventually you will lose them.

"So do various cyber mafia already have it? Do foreign intelligence agencies already have it? It's quite possible numerous people already might have it.

"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA."

The material leaked by Mr Assange's website showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control a person's car.

Assange's briefing was streamed live from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been living as a fugitive from justice since 2012.

The CIA has so far declined to comment directly on the authenticity of the leak, but in a statement it suggested that the release had equipped adversaries "with tools and information to do us harm."

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump has "grave concern" about the release of classified material and believes CIA systems are outdated.