An unknown hacking group referring to itself as the "Shadow Brokers" has reportedly hacked the National Security Agency and is trying to auction off the data it grabbed.
The group posted some of the data for free on a Tumblr blog over the weekend, Foreign Policy reported Monday, though it had been inexplicably removed by Monday evening. The rest of the information was available for buyers to place bids on using the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
In addition to possible intelligence data, analysts said the data included code linked to private security developers including Cisco, Fortinet, TopSec Technology, and Juniper Systems. The NSA has a well-known history of hacking into high profile tech companies in order to insert so-called "backdoors" for breaching security products before they hit the market, which could explain how they ended up stolen in a breach of the agency's servers.
The Shadow Brokers claimed the information came from hacking the Equation Group, a highly sophisticated threat actor linked to the NSA for its connection to projects like the Stuxnet virus, the malicious software that for years ravaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges.
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