There are also “implant” tools that can help hackers do things like siphon out or modify information on a system once they’ve broken in.
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Experts across the world are still examining what amount to electronic lock picks. Many have since speculated that the NSA is behind the group, although attribution in the field of cyberespionage is a notoriously tricky issue.
In releasing the cyberweapons, the Shadow Brokers claimed it had in its possession a much larger – and presumably more damaging – cache of stolen data from the Equation Group that it would auction off to the highest bidder or release for free if the auction raised the equivalent of about $550 million. While the Russian cybersecurity firm never explicitly stated that the Equation Group was an official NSA offshoot, the groups’ tools and identifiable connection to several high profile data breaches may suggest the existence of a relationship.
In a post written on Tuesday, he added that the “ability to keep something this big quiet” for that length of time was “probably limited to only those with operational security expertise or desire to leverage those bugs for themselves”.
The latter attacks every variant of the ASA software from Cisco, but it is a bit of a challenge to get it rolling.
Cisco, Fortinet and Juniper Networks have confirmed that they are investigating reports of zero-days in their products.
That unit came to light in 2013 when Edward Snowden, the former Central Intelligence Agency employee and NSA contractor, leaked thousands of documents revealing that the US government spied on dozens of foreign leaders, tapped into fiber optic cables and cracked encryption codes.
In their release, the hackers oxposed two exploits, dubbed EPICBANANA and EXTRABACON.
“They are very reliable”. So the leak of alleged NSA tools, according to Snowden, is a way for Russia to say that if the United States can unmask and expose Russian hacking operations, so can Russia do to the US.
Few take the name or the manifesto at face value.
But the “NSA is not made out of magic”, Snowden said. “Here’s why that is significant:” he added, explaining that the hack could be an effort to influence USA officials wondering how aggressively to respond to the DNC hack. “And in the context of the recent conflict between the U.S. and Russian Federation over election interference, safe money is on the former”.
Snowden did not immediately return messages seeking additional comment. Suiche cautioned it was just a theory. Messages sent to an address registered by the Shadow Brokers were also not returned.
Members of Shadow Brokers, meanwhile, published a sample of the data allegedly stolen, and some are auctioned (in bitcoin). “Auction files better than Stuxnet”, they said.
The content of the files is secret, the group said in its announcement.
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The auction will end at an unspecified time, Shadow Brokers said, encouraging bidders to ‘keep bidding until we announce victor’.
