Shadow brokers stop auctioning NSA hacking tools

The group known as the Shadowbrokers has announced it will stop auctioning NSA hacking tools. Instead, the Shadowbrokers seem to suggest that they want to get money for the NSA files through crowdfunding.

In a message on the Medium site, the Shadowbrokers say that “the auction bores them” and that they are therefore discontinuing it. The group is now asking for an amount of ten thousand bitcoins, approximately 5.8 million euros. Once they receive this amount to the same bitcoin address as at the auction, they say they will release the password for the rest of the NSA files. In addition, the group states that the password is crowdfunding and that ‘everyone wins by sharing the risk and the reward’. It seems that they want to draw attention to the possibility of crowdfunding and that the password does not actually consist of that word.

The Shadowbrokers began an auction in mid-August of a number of files that would contain exploits from the NSA. They offered some of these files for free and the rest, about forty percent, through the auction. The highest bidder would then receive the files. The Shadowbrokers claimed to have “saved the best files for auction.” After publication, it appeared that the released tools actually work, for example on Cisco and Fortinet firewalls. These companies then released patches for the vulnerabilities used by the NSA exploits.

Edward Snowden assumed the leaked files came from a hacked command and control server. Former employees of the NSA’s TAO division later confirmed to The Washington Post that the files did indeed come from the NSA. So far it is unclear what the files, which are still in the hands of the Shadowbrokers, contain. The group has previously complained that too little amounts were transferred to their bitcoin address. So far, about two bitcoins have been transferred.