WikiLeaks says it will help Silicon Valley defend against CIA hacking

Julian Assange makes an offering to the tech community as the CIA and the press question his motivations

• WikiLeaks publishes 'biggest ever leak of secret CIA documents'

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he would contact technology companies and privately supply technical details of the CIA's collection of bugs in some of the world's most commonly used smartphone software. Assange made the announcement in a live-streamed press conference on Thursday, two days after WikiLeaks published the cache of classified documents containing the bugs.

Assange cast WikiLeaks as a rare trustworthy actor in a world of shadowy interests, describing his operation as "a neutral, digital Switzerland" on the heels of harsh criticism from the CIA and renewed accusations of involvement by Russian intelligence with the organization's information-gathering apparatus.