ShadowBrokers hacking group cuts prices, lobs more insults

ShadowBrokers, which is suspected of hacking the National Security Agency (NSA), is cutting prices on its biweekly leaks. 

“All current, future, and past data dumps now 500 ZEC each unless previously posted as less,” the group wrote in a post to its official channel on Monday. 

The cryptocurrency ZCash, abbreviated ZEC, has a conversion rate of roughly $230, making the cost of buying the latest package of leaks  $115,000. In previous posts, ShadowBrokers said it would double the cost each new release, which would place the price of the Oct. 15 release at nearly $1,000,000.

This is the first time the group has reduced, rather than raised, prices.

{mosads}ShadowBrokers since last summer has been leaking files that appear to be from the NSA. The leaks include potent hacking tools, like ones used that were later used in devastating international malware releases WannaCry and NotPetya. 

The group had released files for free and attempted various monetization schemes before settling on what it described as a “wine of the month” club for leaked documents. 

Documents from Edward Snowden that had not been released prior to the ShadowBrokers free releases showed evidence that its leaks were authentic. 

The broad ShadowBrokers blog post covers topics ranging from the group’s favorite holiday (Halloween) to its thoughts on the state of contemporary journalism, all written in their trademark  broken English. 

The group in its post taunts researcher Matt Suiche and praises security reporter Marcy Wheeler.

It also digs at the Wall Street Journal’s report that Russian spies leveraged Kaspersky Lab software in attacks. 

“Corporate media company (WSJ) publishes story with negative financial impacts to foreign company (Kaspersky Labs) FROM ANONYMOUS SOURCE WITH NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE. WTF? Can they being doing that? Libel law suits?” the group wrote.