Hackers Linked To Ransomware Threaten 'Wine Of The Month' Type Leaks

The Shadow Brokers hacking crew that took credit for leaking the cyberweapon used in last week's global ransomware attack says it plans a "data dump of the month" service starting in June.

The group says its monthly menu could include anything from Web browser tools to compromised data on Russian, Chinese, Iranian or North Korean nuclear and missile programs.

"TheShadowBrokers is launching new monthly subscription model. Is being like wine of month club," the group says in a communiqué released Tuesday in its typically choppy English. "Each month peoples can be paying membership fee, then getting members only data dump each month. What members doing with data after is up to members."

Shadow Brokers leaked the "Eternal Blue" computer exploit in April, and Microsoft said it had apparently been obtained from NSA stockpiles. White House Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said the code "was not a tool developed by the NSA to hold ransom data" but did not say whether the exploitable flaw the ransomware was based on came from NSA cyber tools.

The tool was used by another group of hackers to infect hundreds of thousands of computers with the WannaCry virus last week. The identity of that group hasn't been determined, but cybersecurity firms have discovered similarities to previous attacks linked to the Lazarus Group, a hacking team tied to North Korea.

"TheShadowBrokers is not being interested in bug bounties, selling to cyber thugs, or giving to greedy corporate empires," the statement says. "TheShadowBrokers is taking pride in picking adversary equal to or better than selves, a worthy opponent. Is always being about theshadowbrokers vs theequationgroup."

The Equation Group is a hacking group with suspected links to NSA. The ransomware relies on a flaw in the code for older versions of Windows for which Microsoft issued a patch on March 14.

culled from: usatoday.com

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS