Federal investigators suspect a vetted member of the U.S. intelligence community supplied WikiLeaks with the trove of previously unpublished CIA documents released by the anti-secrecy group last month.

A joint investigation launched by the CIA and FBI in the wake of last month’s WikiLeaks publication has given way to a manhunt within the federal government, sources familiar with the probe told this week. The material released by WikiLeaks was “classified and stored in a highly secure section of the intelligence agency,” and had likely been compromised by an individual with physical access to the documents, such as a CIA employee or contractor.

Since March, Wikileaks has published more than 8,761 confidential documents it claims originated from inside the US Central Intelligence Agency. Contained within the whistleblowing organisation's Vault 7 files are details of recent security exploits used by the agency to spy on people.

In particular, the documents claim the CIA developed malware to hack Samsung smart TVs, shared zero-day exploits with UK security agencies, developed anti-forensic tools to avoid detection, and built tools so its code could be disguised as being created in a third-party country.

WikiLeaks has released the fourth part of ‘Vault 7’, named ‘Grasshopper’, the latest in a series of leaks detailing alleged CIA hacking techniques. It details malicious software WikiLeaks claims was taken from “suspected Russian organized crime.”

The latest release consists of 27 documents WikiLeaks claims come from the CIA’s ‘Grasshopper framework’, a platform for building malware for use on Microsoft Windows operating systems. In a statement from WikiLeaks, ‘Grasshopper’ was described as providing the CIA with the ability to build a customized implant which will behave differently, depending on the security capabilities of a computer.

WikiLeaks’ latest batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, details CIA hacking tactics and how they can hamper forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the spy agency. The tool was in use as recently as 2016.

The third release, which contains 676 source code files for the agency’s secret anti-forensics framework, is part of the CIA’s Core Library of malware, according to a statement from WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks said Marble hides fragments of texts that would allow for the author of the malware to be identified, meaning the agency allows another party to be blamed for the hack.

A new Wikileaks release called DarkMatter was released today, affirming that the Central Intelligence Agency has long targeted Apple Macs, creating malware designed to evade the tech giant's security mechanisms.

The leak also revealed the CIA had been targeting the iPhone since 2008, a year after the landmark device was released. That slice of info was included in a small dump of information Wednesday, that included manuals for a handful of implants and rootkits, the kernel and the firmware of the device. One of CIA's implants was called NightSkies then appearing to list the year 2008, though Wikileaks claimed the tool was operational in 2007, the year of launch.

A partnership between the secret-spilling group and Google, Microsoft, and Apple has already hit its first road block. Last week, WikiLeaks promised it would share the technical details and code of the hacking tools that the CIA has allegedly developed against Google, Apple, Microsoft and other tech companies.

This week, after days of waiting, the secret-spilling site finally made initial contact with the companies. But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's attempt to help these major tech companies find out exactly what bugs and vulnerabilities the CIA is or was allegedly taking advantage of, and then plug the holes, is not going very smoothly for now.

Tech giants Apple, Samsung and Microsoft have broken their silence on the latest leak from WikiLeaks that revealed the CIA hacked into their products for surveillance purposes. Apple claimed to have previously addressed the vulnerabilities in their operating system, iOS, revealed in Tuesday’s ‘Vault 7’ leak from WikiLeaks.

“While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities,” the company said in a statement, urging customers to update to the latest version of iOS to ensure they have the most recent security updates.

The US intelligence agencies are facing fresh embarrassment after WikiLeaks published what it described as the biggest ever leak of confidential documents from the CIA detailing the tools it uses to break into phones, apps and other electronic devices.

The thousands of leaked documents focus mainly on techniques for hacking and reveal how the CIA cooperated with British intelligence to engineer a way to compromise smart televisions and turn them into improvised surveillance devices. The leak will once again raise questions about the inability of US spy agencies to protect secret documents in the digital age.

In the continuing dribble of leaked emails from John Podesta's inbox, WikiLeaks has revealed an interesting exchange between Apple and the Clinton campaign manager where the Cupertino firm talks about giving governments its customer data.

Following Apple's firm stance on encryption surrounding the shooter's iPhone, where US authorities unsuccessfully demanded Apple provide a "backdoor" to the handset, this may come as somewhat of a shock. However, refrain from throwing your arms in the air just yet. In the email Apple VP Lisa Jackson is actually reaching out to John Podesta to thank Clinton's "principled and nuanced stance" on encryption in the tech sector.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange advised journalists to use the regular postal service instead of email to avoid government surveillance, while talking about how to protect information sources and whistleblowers in an interview.

“Journalists are treated by intelligence services as spies,” Assange told. He also suggested other methods to avoid spying and protect confidentiality, such as meeting with the sources at conferences. He claimed that, although improvements in both legislation and technologies were needed to improve protection for whistleblowers, the latter still played a greater role.