FBI launches criminal investigation into WikiLeaks' publication of CIA documents

Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the public release of a document cache believed to detail CIA hacking tools designed to breach computers, web servers, smartphones and televisions, a US official said Wednesday.

The inquiry is being coordinated by the FBI, according to the official, following Tuesday's disclosure by the website WikiLeaks, which stated that the CIA Centre for Cyber Intelligence "lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal.''

The investigation will seek to determine how the documents came into WikiLeaks' possession, whether they might have been leaked by an employee or contractor or whether the disclosure represented a breach from the outside.

The CIA is also trying to determine if there are other unpublished documents WikiLeaks may have.

The CIA has not confirmed whether the documents - said to date between 2013 to 2016 - are real, but one of its former chiefs was concerned by their publication.

"If what I have read is true, then this seems to be an incredibly damaging leak in terms of the tactics, techniques, procedures and tools that were used by the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct legitimate foreign intelligence," ex-CIA director Michael Hayden told the BBC.

"In other words, it's made my country and my country's friends less safe."