The Shadow Brokers have been relatively quiet over the past few weeks, which is never a good sign. It now appears the infamous hacker collective is looking to expose a former NSA hacker’s identity. That is a very troublesome development if true. Moreover, it appears the group is quite upbeat regarding their monthly dump service subscription, which has seen “significant interest” since it launched.
The Shadow Brokers Are Still Lurking
It is evident The Shadow Brokers are still on the right path to make media headlines. After remaining rather silent for a few weeks, the group has shared a new update. First of all, they mention how their monthly dump service is doing quite well, with plenty of customers signing up. Do keep in mind these reports always need to be taken with a grain of salt, as it is difficult to verify this information.
What is of bigger concern however, is how the hacker collective threatens to expose an NSA employee. Their blog post mentions how this individual used to be a hacker employed by the NSA. It appears The Shadow Brokers have had some beef with this person on Twitter, and are now prepared to take things to a whole new level. That is a very disturbing turn of events, to say the least.
According to the information shared with the world, this particular Twitter user was part of the Equation Group. It appears this group is one of the NSA‘s many hacking operations in recent years. The Shadow Brokers are convinced they know who this person is in real life, and how he or she built multiple tools to attack Chinese organizations on behalf of the NSA. Moreover, the collective claims this person is a co-founder of a new security firm, which recently received a significant injection of VC funding.
To make matters even more confusing, this person can effectively escape being exposed by The Shadow Brokers. All he or she has to do is sign up for the group’s monthly dump service during the month of July. The person has to use a very specific email address, to do so, though. This appears to be a very strange marketing stunt, and it is doubtful the alleged NSA employee will follow these guidelines.
So far, the Twitter user in question is denying all of these allegations, which is not surprising. In fact, the user has even claimed to reveal his identity himself, which would thwart plans made by The Shadow Brokers. It is possible this is a case of misidentification. Then again, it is equally possible bigger things are at play here. We will probably never know the full truth, that much is evident at this stage.
Anyone can see The Shadow Brokers are playing a very dangerous game right now. The hacker collective seemingly has no scruples whatsoever. Threatening the safety of former and current NSA employees is very disturbing. Cyber warfare is scaling at an accelerated pace, which could be quite disastrous for everyone who gets swept up in the momentum. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves over the coming weeks.
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