A group calling itself the “Shadow Brokers” has claimed to have hacked an elite cyberattack group associated with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), and is offering the stolen technology to the highest bidder. Equation Group, the alleged victims of the hack, are known to be one of the most advanced hacking groups in the world, according to analysis by security firm Kaspersky. As proof of the hack, a sample of the stolen data has been published.
Security experts have analyzed the sample files put up by Shadow Brokers in order to determine whether it was true, or simply an elaborate hoax. Citizen Lab Senior Research Fellow Claudio Guarnieri told The Wired in an interview that the content does seem legitimate.
“It looks very much as if the NSA attacked someone, and that someone managed to source the origin of the attacks, and counter-hacked them. The content is credible enough and properly reflects what we know of some of the program names in there.” He added that this was not enough to link the code to Equation Group or any other NSA-contracted cyberattack organizations.
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