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To arouse interest in the auction, the hackers released samples
of programs they said could break into popular firewall software
made by companies including Cisco Systems Inc, Juniper Networks
Inc and Fortinet Inc.
The companies did not respond to request for comment, nor did
the NSA.
Writing in imperfect English, the Shadow Brokers promised in
postings on a Tumblr blog that the auctioned material would
contain “cyber weapons” developed by the Equation Group, a
hacking group that cyber security experts widely believe to be
an arm of the NSA. [http://reut.rs/2aVA7LD]
The Shadow Brokers said the programs they will auction will be
“better than Stuxnet,” a malicious computer worm widely
attributed to the United States and Israel that sabotaged Iran’s
nuclear program.
Reuters could not contact the Shadow Brokers or verify their
assertions. Some experts who looked at the samples posted on
Tumblr said they included programs that had previously been
described and therefore were unlikely to cause major damage.
“The data [released so far] appears to be relatively old; some
of the programs have already been known for years,” said
researcher Claudio Guarnieri, and are unlikely “to cause any
significant operational damage.”
Still, they appeared to be genuine tools that might work if
flaws have not been addressed. After examining the code released
Monday, Matt Suiche, founder of UAE-based security startup Comae
Technologies, concluded they looked like "could be used."
Other security experts warned the posting could prove to be a
hoax. The group said interested parties had to send funds in
advance of winning the auction via Bitcoin currency and would
not get their money back if they lost.
The auction will end at an unspecified time, Shadow Brokers
said, encouraging bidders to "keep bidding until we announce
winner."
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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