Wikileaks claims to release first set of CIA hacking documents

WikiLeaks on Tuesday published a massive number of documents purportedly pertaining to the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) hacking programs.

According to the Hill, the documents contain descriptions of hacking tools, engineering notes, internal communications and more. The release did not immediately appear to have included the tools themselves, and agent names have been redacted.

This is the first leak of the CIA project the site is calling "Vault 7." WikiLeaks first released an encrypted version of this batch of documents, nicknamed "Year Zero," on Twitter late Monday.

It provided a password for the documents around 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, about an hour before the documents' intended release time, due to alleged cyber attacks on the online press conference that WikiLeaks head Julian Assange tried to host in advance of the release.

'Year Zero', comprises 8,761 documents and files from an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina [sic]," a press release accompanying the leaks reads.

The leaks reveal a hacking operations center called the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe (CCIE) based out of the Frankfurt Consulate.

Wikileaks founded by Julian Assange has conducted a global crusade to expose government secrets through a series of controversial document dumps in recent years.