The drama continues! For those that haven’t heard of the ShadowBrokers situation, check out this post HERE.
In summary, a group of Russian hackers attempted to auction off a ton of exploits stolen from the NSA however that didn’t get a buyer. Now they are posting a flat rate to purchase these exploits using crowdfunding. To prove what they have is are real, they posted a bunch of the exploits (about 60% for free) a few weeks back causing chaos to the vendors associated to exploits.
Here is a article from Theregister about the current situation (original post found HERE). Read the end to see the last verbiage from the ShadowBrokers.
Auction failed, now false-flag filchers want 10k bitcoin or the code gets it
A group thought linked to a Russian hacking outfit has moved to cash in on its cache of likely NSA exploit tooling, by offering it in exchange for 10,000 Bitcoins.
The group known as “ShadowBrokers” wrote that they will release a password to a public encrypted cache of alleged NSA tools and exploits.
It is the second cache released in conjunction with cleartext and since-confirmed NSA tools and codedump released earlier this year which revealed dangerous zero day exploits in top end but years-old versions of enterprise security kit.
Security analysts have confirmed the validity of the dumps with some including NSA leaker Edward Snowden suggesting the data is stolen from a hacked command and control server used by his former US Government employer in network exploitation attacks.
The cache now offered under the 10,000 (US$6,403,800) Bitcoin fundraiser was first offered for sale under a failed silent auction, and it is almost guaranteed the latest effort will also flunk.
About 60 per cent of the total cache was released for free, including then zero day exploits against Cisco and Juniper firewalls, with the remainder locked up until payment is received.
Here’s an excerpt from ShadowBrokers’ latest missive:
“TheShadowBrokers is being bored with auction so no more auction. Auction off. Auction finish. Auction done. No winners. So who is wanting password? TheShadowBrokers is publicly posting the password when receive 10,000 btc (ten thousand bitcoins). Same bitcoin address, same file, password is crowdfunding. Sharing risk. Sharing reward. Everyone winning.”
ShadowBrokers is an interesting group that experts agree is likely a nation state actor given its advanced exploit capabilities.
