A mysterious online group is claiming to have hacked the Equation Group, an organisation believed to be an affiliate of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
The group, calling itself the Shadow Brokers, said in a post on blogging service Tumblr that it had access to a full state sponsored tool set of cyberweapons.
To support its claims, the group released samples of the files it said belonged to the Equation Group. The hackers said they will hold an auction to sell of the stolen files.
The group noted that if it gets one million Bitcoins they will release the tools for free to all.
In 2015, Kaspersky Lab accused the Equation Group, said to be a collection of hackers, of using techniques and tools very similar to those of the NSA.
The security firm described the Equation Group as a threat actor that surpasses anything known in terms of complexity and sophistication of techniques, and that has been active for almost two decades.
While Kaspersky Lab did not attribute the Equation Group to the NSA, the work carried out by the group is similar to that conducted by the American intelligence agency.
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The Shadow Brokers released some files from the Equation Group, on Github and Tumblr.
The files featured installation scripts, configurations for command-and-control servers, and exploits allegedly designed for targeting routers and firewalls from several companies like Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and Fortinet.
