NSA hacking tools: ‘Shadow Brokers’ selling ‘stolen’ NSA-developed viruses for $500m - TomoNews

BALTIMORE — Thousands of American and international businesses may be at risk from leaked stolen malware that was developed by the U.S. National Security Agency.

Hackers calling themselves the “Shadow Brokers” claim to have stole malware developed from the Equation Group, a team of hackers connected to the NSA.

Standard firewalls used by businesses are designed to protect offices from most malware and cyber attacks. However, using reportedly stolen NSA-developed malware, hackers may be able to override the security used by many businesses.

Details of the alleged hack are unknown, but former NSA analyst Edward Snowden noted in a tweet from his official Twitter account that “the hacking of an NSA malware staging server is not unprecedented, but the publication of it is.”

Some experts have tentatively speculated that the hackers may have been based in Russia.