Back in August a group of hackers calling itself “Shadow Brokers” leaked list of hacking tools claiming to be from the US National Security Agency (NSA). The leak was confirmed when security companies were in a hast to patch holes in their software revealed by the disclosure.
According to several security experts who examined the data shows that the latest leak discloses NSA-style codenames – including “Jackladder” and “Dewdrop” and carries internet protocol information about scores of organisations, many based in Japan, China and South Korea.
Matthew Hickey, co-founder of UK-based cyber security consultancy Hacker House, said it was plausible that the servers would have seen use as staging posts to help obfuscate the origin of electronic eavesdropping operations. More worrying for the NSA, the leak backs Shadow Brokers’ claims to have stolen an as-yet undisclosed set of electronic lock picks from the agency.
“Those can be hard to generate,” Hickey said in a telephone interview, calling it “quite expensive to replicate all those tools.”
The authenticity of the latest batch of material could not immediately be published, although Hickey said any hoax would have to have been unusually elaborate.
Shadow Brokers did not return messages seeking comment Monday. The NSA declined to comment.