A serious breach to privacy, WikiLeaks alleges that the intelligence agency adopted unethical hacking techniques to appear as hackers from foreign countries like Russian Federation to get access to the aforementioned devices across the globe.

The CIA, while not commenting on the authenticity of the documents, said Wednesday that "the American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure created to damage the Intelligence Community's ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries". Hardly reassuring for those who worry their data might be compromised.

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks released thousands of CIA documents detailing the agency's alleged abilities to hack into smartphones, computers, and smart TVs-but Apple said that numerous security flaws that could allow such access were already patched in the latest iOS update.

The CIA's hackers had produced more than 1,000 viruses, Trojans and other malware, the documents claim. The hacking arsenal comparises several hundred million lines of code.

WikiLeaks' press release gives an overview on the range of the hacking tools and software, and the organisational structure of the groups responsible for producing them.

United States intelligence agencies believe the emails were hacked by Russian Federation as part of a coordinated influence campaign to discredit Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and help President Donald Trump, a Republican, win.

The CIA also designs attacks against Internet infrastructure and webservers, according to the documents.

Assange explained that the fact that the Central Intelligence Agency lost control of the materials is the reason WikiLeaks was able to obtain the information.

A number of anecdotal examples of the CIA's hacking technology were revealed in the data dump.

Wikileaks wrote that in the case of a tool called "Weeping Angel" for attacking Samsung SmartTVs, the target TV is placed after infestation in a "Fake-Off" mode. It can also allegedly use your phone's camera.

So basically, your most private, personal and revealing conversations could be being read by American intelligence operatives.

The U.S. intelligence community is scrambling to find the source of the massive leak of classified CIA documents, which lay out, in detail, the tools the agency uses to conduct covert monitoring of electronic devices - everything from iPhones to smart televisions. Williams, who has had experience dealing with government hackers said that the extensive reference to operation security meant that they involved the government, Williams said: "I can't fathom anyone fabricated that amount of operational security concern".

Assange said Thursday he will let companies affected by the exploits look at the CIA's hacking tools so they can patch their vulnerabilities before they become public.