The auction for an advanced, National Security Agency-linked cyberweapon just became cheaper.
After a day of speculation over whether the previously unknown “Shadow Brokers” could really be auctioning off an authentic stolen copy of the vaunted espionage group’s source code, WikiLeaks announced it would be releasing a free, “pristine” copy.
{mosads}WikiLeaks — and The Shadow Brokers — claim to have copies of the code behind the Equation Group, labeled “one of the most sophisticated cyber attack groups in the world” when it was discovered last year. The operation went under the radar for 14 years before being discovered, well longer than other known attackers.
Equation is usually described as an NSA team because of similarities between its work and other projects attributed to the spy agency, as well as the use of NSA jargon within the program’s core.
An auction notice by Shadow Brokers placing hacked source code of Equation malware gained wide attention Monday. While inconclusive, files the Brokers released as proof it had the code appeared legitimate enough to pique the security community’s interest.
But Monday night, WikiLeaks tweeted, “We had already obtained the archive of NSA cyber weapons released earlier today and will release our own pristine copy in due course.”
It is unclear why WikiLeaks had not already released a copy of the code it claims it had. As of late, WikiLeaks has timed its releases for maximum political impact. Emails leaked from the Democratic National Committee went live leading into the Democratic Convention, rather than when they were first obtained.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 announced WikiLeaks will release the brunt of the documents taken from the DCCC hack.