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Shadow Brokers Leaks Another Windows Hacking Tool Stolen from NSA's Arsenal

Shadow Brokers Leaks Another Windows Hacking Tool Stolen from NSA’s Arsenal
Sep 08, 2017
The Shadow Brokers , a notorious hacking group that leaked several hacking tools from the NSA, is once again making headlines for releasing another NSA exploit—but only to its "monthly dump service" subscribers. Dubbed UNITEDRAKE , the implant is a "fully extensible remote collection system" that comes with a number of "plug-ins," enabling attackers to remotely take full control over targeted Windows computers. In its latest post, the hacking group announced a few changes to its monthly dump service and released encrypted files from the previous months as well. Notably, the September dump also includes an unencrypted PDF file, which is a user manual for the UNITEDRAKE (United Rake) exploit developed by the NSA. According to the leaked user manual, UNITEDRAKE is a customizable modular malware with the ability to capture webcam and microphone output, log keystrokes, access external drives and more in order to spy on its targets. The tool c

'Shadow Brokers' Threatens to Unmask A Hacker Who Worked With NSA

'Shadow Brokers' Threatens to Unmask A Hacker Who Worked With NSA
Jun 28, 2017
The Shadow Brokers , a notorious hacking group that leaked US cyberweapons — which were also abused by the recent ransomware disasters WannaCry and Petya or NotPetya — has now threatened to unmask the identity of a former hacker who worked for the NSA. Besides this, the Shadow Brokers group has also doubled the price for its monthly subscription model of NSA's built hacking tools and zero-day exploits from 100 ZEC (Zcash) to 200 ZEC, which is around $64,400 USD. Moreover, the hacking group has also announced a VIP service for people, who will be entertained by the group for their queries on the leaked hacking tools and exploits. To subscribe to the VIP service, one has to make a one-time payment of 400 ZEC (around US$128,800). Last month, the Shadow Brokers announced to release more zero-days exploits and hacking tools  developed by the US spy agency every month from June 2017, but only to private members who will subscribe for receiving exclusive access to the futur

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future
Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu

Leaked NSA Hacking Tools Being Used to Hack Thousands of Vulnerable Windows PCs

Leaked NSA Hacking Tools Being Used to Hack Thousands of Vulnerable Windows PCs
Apr 22, 2017
Script kiddies and online criminals around the world have reportedly started exploiting NSA hacking tools leaked last weekend to compromise hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Windows computers exposed on the Internet. Last week, the mysterious hacking group known as Shadow Brokers leaked a set of Windows hacking tools targeting Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 7 and 8, and Windows 2012, allegedly belonged to the NSA's Equation Group. What's Worse? Microsoft quickly downplayed the security risks by releasing patches for all exploited vulnerabilities , but there are still risks in the wild with unsupported systems as well as with those who haven't yet installed the patches. Multiple security researchers have performed mass Internet scans over the past few days and found tens of thousands of Windows computers worldwide infected with DoublePulsar , a suspected NSA spying implant, as a result of a free tool released on GitHub for anyone to use. Security r

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Shadow Brokers Group Releases More Stolen NSA Hacking Tools & Exploits

Shadow Brokers Group Releases More Stolen NSA Hacking Tools & Exploits
Apr 08, 2017
Remember The Shadow Brokers ? They are back. A hackers group that previously claimed to have stolen a bunch of hacking tools (malware, zero-day exploits, and implants) created by the NSA and gained popularity last year for leaking a portion of those tools is back. Today, The Shadow Brokers group released more alleged hacking tools and exploits that, the group claims, belonged to " Equation Group " – an elite cyber attack unit linked to the NSA. Besides dumping some NSA's hacking tools back in August 2016, the Shadow Brokers also released an encrypted cache of files containing more NSA's hacking tools and exploits in an auction, asking for 1 Million Bitcoins (around $568 Million). However, after failed auction , the group put up those hacking tools and exploits for direct sale on an underground website, categorizing them into a type — like "exploits," "Trojans," and "implant" — each of which ranged from 1 to 100 Bitcoins (fr

Stolen NSA "Windows Hacking Tools" Now Up For Sale!

Stolen NSA "Windows Hacking Tools" Now Up For Sale!
Jan 10, 2017
The Shadow Brokers who previously stole and leaked a portion of the NSA hacking tools and exploits is back with a Bang! The hacking group is now selling another package of hacking tools, " Equation Group Windows Warez ," which includes Windows exploits and antivirus bypass tools, stolen from the NSA-linked hacking unit, The Equation Group. For those unfamiliar with the topic, The Shadow Brokers is a notorious group of black-hat hackers who, in August 2016, leaked exploits, security vulnerabilities, and "powerful espionage tools" created by The Equation Group. On Saturday, the Shadow Brokers posted a message on their ZeroNet based website, announcing the sale of the entire " Windows Warez " collection for 750 Bitcoin (around US$678,630). The data dump contains many windows hacking tools, categorized as following: Fuzzing tools (used to discover errors and security loopholes) Exploit Framework Network Implants Remote Administration Tools (RAT) Remot

Shadow Brokers reveals list of Servers Hacked by the NSA

Shadow Brokers reveals list of Servers Hacked by the NSA
Oct 31, 2016
The hacker group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, who previously claimed to have leaked a portion of the NSA's hacking tools and exploits, is back with a Bang! The Shadow Brokers published more files today, and this time the group dumped a list of foreign servers allegedly compromised by the NSA-linked hacking unit, Equation Group, in various countries to expand its espionage operations. Top 3 Targeted Countries — China, Japan, and Korea The data dump  [ Download / File Password: payus ] that experts believe contains 306 domain names, and 352 IP addresses belong to at least 49 countries. As many as 32 domains of the total were run by educational institutes in China and Taiwan. A few target domains were based in Russia, and at least nine domains include .gov websites. The top 10 targeted countries include China, Japan, Korea, Spain, Germany, India, Taiwan, Mexico, Italy, and Russia. The latest dump has been signed by the same key as the first Shadow Brokers' dump of

The NSA Hack — What, When, Where, How, Who & Why?

The NSA Hack — What, When, Where, How, Who & Why?
Aug 17, 2016
You might have heard about the recent ongoing drama of NSA hack that has sparked a larger debate on the Internet concerning abilities of US intelligence agencies as well as their own security. Saturday morning the news broke that a mysterious group of hackers calling themselves "The Shadow Brokers" claimed it hacked an NSA-linked group and released some NSA hacking tools with a promise to sell more private "cyber weapons" to the highest bidder. The group dumped a bunch of private hacking tools from " Equation Group " – an elite cyber attack unit linked to the NSA – on GitHub and Tumblr. The Shadow Brokers hacking group has published the leaked data in two parts; one includes many hacking tools designed to inject malware into various servers and another encrypted file containing the "best files" that they made available for sale for 1 Million Bitcoins. However, GitHub deleted the files from its page, not due to any government pressur

NSA's Hacking Group Hacked! Bunch of Private Hacking Tools Leaked Online

NSA's Hacking Group Hacked! Bunch of Private Hacking Tools Leaked Online
Aug 15, 2016
It seems like the NSA has been HACKED! Update: The NSA Hack — What, When, Where, How, Who & Why? Explained Here. An unknown hacker or a group of hackers just claimed to have hacked into " Equation Group " -- a cyber-attack group allegedly associated with the United States intelligence organization NSA -- and dumped a bunch of its hacking tools (malware, private exploits, and hacking tools) online. I know, it is really hard to believe, but some cybersecurity experts who have been examining the leak data, exploits and hacking tools, believe it to be legitimate. Hacker Demands $568 Million in Bitcoin to Leak All Tools and Data Not just this, the hackers, calling themselves " The Shadow Brokers ," are also asking for 1 Million Bitcoins ( around $568 Million ) in an auction to release the 'best' cyber weapons and more files. Also Read:   Links Found between NSA, Regin Spy tool and QWERTY Keylogger Widely believed to be part of the NSA, Equati

NSA Planted Stuxnet-Type Malware Deep Within Hard Drive Firmware

NSA Planted Stuxnet-Type Malware Deep Within Hard Drive Firmware
Feb 17, 2015
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) may be hiding highly-sophisticated hacking payloads in the firmware of consumer hard drives over the last 15 to 20 years in a campaign, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on thousands of targets' computers, according to an analysis by Kaspersky labs and subsequent reports. 'EQUATION GROUP' BEHIND THE MALWARE The team of malicious actors is dubbed the the " Equation Group " by researchers from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, and describes them as " probably one of the most sophisticated cyber attack groups in the world," and "the most advanced threat actor we have seen. " The security researchers have documented 500 infections by Equation Group and believes that the actual number of victims likely reaches into the tens of thousands because of a self-destruct mechanism built into the malware. TOP MANUFACTURERS' HARD DRIVES ARE INFECTED Russian security experts reportedly uncovered sta
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