An underground hacker group known as the Shadow Brokers have announced that they are prepared to auction off, to the highest bidder, certain stolen surveillance tools they say were used specifically by a covert cyber group closely linked to the United States National Security Agency (NSA).
The announcement by the group was made on August 15 and they posted samples of some of the tools online so that potential bidders will know that the NSA espionage and surveillance tools are authentic. Some of the tools the group posted are firewall breaking programs that can, allegedly, crack through any commercial firewall especially those created by Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems and Fortinet.
None of the companies, or the NSA, have made any public comments. The postings by the Shadow Brokers were posted on a blog at Tumblr and the English was such that it was recognized that it is not the spokesperson’s first language. They stated that the tools were taken from a group known as the Equation Group. Cyber security analysts and experts have long known that they are a suspected division of the NSA.
Shadow Brokers were quoted on the Tumblr blog as declaring that the software tools they are auctioning off will be “better than Stuxnet”. The Stuxnet worm was developed, so it is widely thought, by Israeli and American intelligence and that the worm actually led to the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Some cyber experts have gone over the released tools and many have declared that they are rather old and unlikely to do the kind of damage the Shadow Brokers are saying it could. Others are saying that these tools look extremely authentic and could be used to great affect.
The bidding, declared Shadow Brokers, will keep going until the group announces a winner. Bidders must submit their bids in Bitcoin and there will be no refunds.
PHOTO CREDIT: Reuters