Hackers sell online “kit” cyber espionage with which the US monitors the world – El Diario NY

Hackers ensure that data and spy tools which went on sale belong to the most important division of cyberattacks NSA

in recent years, the National Security Agency US (NSA, for its acronym in English) has been in the spotlight, accused of no limits to when undertaking their activities .

it was criticized for spying on the United Nations, access to private information of heads of state from around the world and massively collect data of its citizens , as unveiled its exanalista Edward Snowden.

But now it appears that their spy tools have seen the light. Or, at least, the screens of many Internet users. And some hackers announced that they were putting up for sale at auction.

Files and tools spying Security Agency United States allegedly auctioned were 2013.

Everything indicates that spies were spied : your accounts appear to have been “hacked”. But what was what happened and who was behind the alleged theft?

Runners in the shadow

The group behind the “hack” to now unknown, is called “ shadow Brokers ” ( “Runners in the shadow”).

the hackers said on Twitter that gained access to the networks of the NSA and enter a lot of files Group Equations, the most powerful division of the agency that has the more “sophisticated techniques” of cyber espionage, as announced in 2015 a report by security firm Kaspersky.

and then decided to put the tools of “hack” for sale on the Github web platform and his Tumblr page, and disabled.

Tumblr page where “runners in the shadow” published the information has been cleared. “There’s nothing here,” it reads, in English.

Wikileaks also confirmed that it had all those files, but not he mentioned how he had obtained.

a million bitcoins

in the online auction “hackers” calling one million bitcoins (about $ 570 million).

“We found many cyber weapons Equation Group. Look at the pictures. We offer some of their free files, it is a good test does not it? Enjoy! [...] We’re auctioning off the best files “hackers on Saturday

, they said. Those documents contained, according to The Hacker News ,” scripts installation, configuration server command and control (C & C) and exploit (pieces of software) designed to attack firewall American companies as Cisco Systems, Juniper and Fortinet. “

There are doubts about how hackers gained access to the files and on the legitimacy of the same.

it is still to be seen whether all these documents are legitimate, but some cybersecurity experts think so.

“Even we have not checked the exploit and are confident that seem legitimate “he told the Daily Dot Matt Suiche, founder of cybersecurity Comae Technologies, based in UAE.

a “diplomatic issue”

Others, however, say that it is a hoax. “The authors (of cyber attack) put a lot of effort into this fraud” , said security firm The grugq .

However, Snowden, who he worked in the NSA- believes it was a real attack and that everything indicates that there “Russian responsibility” , which would add tension to the alleged theft of information from computers Democratic Party, also attributed to the Eurasian nation.

Snowden said the course “hack” could be related to Russia.

Snowden, however, the matter “ is more a matter of diplomacy intelligence” .

“filtration is a warning that someone is capable of demonstrate the responsibility of the United States of any attack by malicious software that originated from that server, “said exanalista via Twitter.

according to Snowden, the alleged “hacking” NSA “could have important implications for foreign policy (US)”.

the cryptographer Bruce Schneier agrees and says the fact that the stolen files are dated 2013 is what “suggests that it is a matter of Russian intelligence.” The NSA has not yet ruled on the matter. Nor has the Russian government.