The group known as the Shadow Brokers have bragging on file-sharing site Pastebin, claiming to have stolen valuable files from a company that have links to the NSA.
Kaspersky security named the victim company as the Equation Group, which Shadow Brokers say they have managed to grab “cyber weapons” from, adding that it is offering programs “made by creators of Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame” – high profile forms of computer malware said to be government-sponsored.
A sample has already released for verification, which could be genuine, experts admitted. This prompted whistle-blowing site Wikileaks to tweet that it had also managed to get it’s hands on the data. However, the hackers seem intent on holding an online Bitcoin auction, where the will release the encryption code to the highest bidders “when we feel it is time to end”.
Appearing in no rush, as there is no date set, one could easily be thinking that this is all smoke and mirrors, with bold claims and no real damaging material. On the other hand, they might also be biding their time just to make the Americans sweat just a little longer…