Hackers Claim To Be Selling NSA Cyberweapons In Online Auction (dailydot.com)

Reader blottsie writes: A group of hackers identifying themselves as theShadow Brokers claims to have hacked the NSA's Equation Group, a team of American hackers that have been described as both "omnipotent" and "the most advanced" threat cyberspace has ever seen. On the Shadow Brokers' website, the group has shared a sample of data that some cybersecurity experts say lends credibility to the breach. The the hackers' asking price for what they claim is a cache of NSA-built cyberweapons. Motherboard's take on this is here.

Comments

Let's Face It

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't matter if Equation Group is part of the NSA, or if these tools come from Equation Group, or whatever. Just so long as these are real hacking tools used by any state agency, from any country, this puts the final nail in the coffin. Not that most of us needed that final nail.

The coffin being, "oh just create an encryption/security back door so that legitimate law enforcement can access it. You don't support child molesters and terrorists do you?"

Everybody. Gets. Hacked.

Secrets. Don't. Stay. Secret.

Yeah, the people who owned/created this screwed up. The point is, everyone screws up, given enough time and enough people involved.

Smells like an old fish packing plant

[jandrese]

If you were trying to scam people this is exactly how you would structure an "auction".

Lets look at the details:
1. The money you bid is kept by the seller, regardless of who wins.
2. Impossible to verify the product's authenticity before the sale.
3. There is no public notification that the winner received the goods.
4. The auctioneers can make their own bids.
5. There is no end date. The seller stops the auction at their discretion

Someone would have to be especially trusting or maybe desperate to bid on this. There are ways to set up trusted zero knowledge transfers, but these guys instead act like we should trust them just because they're anonymous.