Shadow Brokers, the hacking group that claimed to have cracked a US National Security Agency cache of illicit security services’ malware , have given up their auction – and decided to give away many of the tools instead.
The group gave up their attempt to sell the portfolio of tools, linked to an NSA front security software firm Kaspersky called ‘Equation Group’, in a message late on Thursday evening.
The group admitted that it hadn’t proved to be as profitable a venture as hoped, and claimed that it had been too much ” risk and bullshit, not many bitcoin “. It was always, the message added, about making money with “free dumps and bullshit politic[s]… for marketing attention”.
The group provided a link to 58 of the tools they claim to have dredged from a cracked server operated by the NSA , with the promise that crossing their palms with a total of 750 bitcoin (about £500,000) would release the entire portfolio of tools.
