NSA, hacked

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 17, 2016 20:54
VIEWED: 1042
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SIGNYM

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 8:32 PM

And THIS time, Russia really is a suspect!

Quote:
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.

NSA Hack Raises a Few Important Question: The leak of advanced hacking tools allegedly stolen from the Equation Group has raised few questions in everyone's mind:

Is Equation Group an elite cyber attack unit linked to the NSA?
Are the Equation Group Hack and leaked exploits legitimate?
If Legit, Do the advanced hacking tools actually belong to Equation Group?
Who is behind the hack? Russia?

Here's all you need to know about the NSA Hack:

Kaspersky Confirmed: Leaked Hacking Tools Belong to NSA-tied Group

Kaspersky is the RUSSIAN cyber-security research group which discovered Stuxnet and Flame - both are very sophisticated USA-sponsored cyber-attack software which can take control of any number of facility hardware items once injected into the system. It was Stuxnet which broke Iran's nuclear fuel-purification centrifuges tubes.

Quote:
According to a technical report published Tuesday by security firm Kaspersky Lab, the leaked advanced hacking tools contains digital signatures that are identical to those in hacking software and malware previously used by the Equation Group.

"While we cannot surmise the attacker's identity or motivation nor where or how this pilfered trove came to be, we can state that several hundred tools from the leak share a strong connection with our previous findings from the Equation group," Kaspersky researchers said in a blog post.

Over 300 computer files found in the Shadow Brokers archive have a common implementation of RC5 and RC6 encryption algorithms – which has been used extensively by the Equation Group. Also, the implementation of encryption algorithms is identical to the RC5 and RC6 code in the Equation Group malware.

"There are more than 300 files in the Shadow Brokers' archive which implement this specific variation of RC6 in 24 other forms," the researcher wrote. "The chances of all these being fakes or engineered is highly unlikely."

"The code similarity makes us believe with a high degree of confidence that the tools from the Shadow Brokers' leak are related to the malware from the Equation group."

Kaspersky Lab previously linked Equation Group to the NSA, describing it as "a threat actor that surpasses anything known in terms of complexity and sophistication of techniques, and that has been active for almost two decades."

The security firm also claimed Equation Group to be behind a variety of malware types, including Stuxnet and Flame, which are associated with cyber attacks launched by the United States.

Former NSA Personnel also Confirms the Authenticity of Leaked Data

Now, adding more proofs to the possibility and making the speculations stronger, some ex-NSA insiders say the leaked hacking tools are legitimate and linked to the NSA.

One former NSA employee who worked in its special hacking division, Tailored Access Operations (TAO), told the Washington Post that "without a doubt, they're the keys to the kingdom."

"The stuff you are talking about would undermine the security of a lot of major government and corporate networks both here and abroad," said the former TAO employee, who asked Post to remain anonymous.

Among other things, the software targets Cisco routers, which are used worldwide.

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THGRRI

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 8:54 PM

I had Kaspersky, till I realized that a company that resides in Moscow would not have to hack into my computer if I let them in. What a great scam if that is what they are doing. After all, freedom does not exist in Russia and the GRU (Russian military intelligence) may be behind this company. It says privately owned. Sorry, but with ex KGB running everything in Russia I think I'll pass.

Would you grant access to your computer to a security firm out of China? lol

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