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MowCowWhoHow III

(2,103 posts) Tue Aug 16, 2016, 01:40 PM Aug 2016

Hacking group claims to offer cyber-weapons in online auction

Source: Reuters

Hackers going by the name Shadow Brokers said on Monday they will auction stolen surveillance tools they say were used by a cyber group linked to the U.S. National Security Agency.

To arouse interest in the auction, the hackers released samples of programs they said could break into popular firewall software made by companies including Cisco Systems Inc, Juniper Networks Inc and Fortinet Inc. The companies did not respond to request for comment, nor did the NSA.

Writing in imperfect English, the Shadow Brokers promised in postings on a Tumblr blog that the auctioned material would contain "cyber weapons" developed by the Equation Group, a hacking group that cyber security experts widely believe to be an arm of the NSA.

The Shadow Brokers said the programs they will auction will be "better than Stuxnet," a malicious computer worm widely attributed to the United States and Israel that sabotaged Iran's nuclear program.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-cyber-auction-idUSL1N1AX10R

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Hacking group claims to offer cyber-weapons in online auction (Original Post) MowCowWhoHow III Aug 2016 OP

Message auto-removed Name removed Aug 2016 #1

IMO this has sting written all over it Sunlei Aug 2016 #2

Thanks, this is good stuff. Pretty sure this is also related, from TechDirt... ancianita Aug 2016 #3

Response to MowCowWhoHow III (Original post)

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Sunlei

(22,651 posts)

2. IMO this has sting written all over it

Reply to MowCowWhoHow III (Original post)

Tue Aug 16, 2016, 02:23 PM

Aug 2016

ancianita

(36,095 posts)

3. Thanks, this is good stuff. Pretty sure this is also related, from TechDirt...

Reply to MowCowWhoHow III (Original post)

Tue Aug 16, 2016, 02:53 PM

Aug 2016

"Ed Snowden Explains Why Hackers Published NSA's Hacking Tools"

I liked this part:

When I came forward, NSA would have migrated offensive operations to new servers as a precaution - it's cheap and easy. So? So... The undetected hacker squatting on this NSA server lost access in June 2013. Rare public data point on the positive results of the leak.

You're welcome, @NSAGov. Lots of love.

Sure, it's speculation, but it's pretty informed speculation and it makes a lot of sense. There's still plenty of talk about what to do about the DNC hack, and we've talked about "cybersecurity firms" (who profit from FUD and scare stories) arguing that we should "declare cyberwar" on Russia based on loose attribution. But, as Snowden notes, this hack and partial release could very well be a warning shot that escalation won't end up looking good for the US if they go that route.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160816/07465535255/ed-snowden-explains-why-hackers-published-nsas-hacking-tools.shtml

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