The Shadow Brokers group, which is allegedly behind the WannaCry attack, wrote on its blog that it is ready to sell hackers much more powerful tools
What if the WannaCry ransomware is just the tip of the iceberg? The hacker group that facilitated the world’s largest digital extortion attack has claimed to have much more powerful malware than WannaCry in their hands, thanks to systems stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA). We’re talking about the hacher group that calls itself Shadow Brokers, who are allegedly responsible for releasing the tools needed to carry out the WannaCry attack, which were then exploited by others. The group, after the uproar caused by the ransomware attack, has now declared that they have a new suite of tools on their hands that highlights and exploits vulnerabilities in the latest and most widely used software. The main target, Shadow Brokers says, are Windows 10 users, also because they represent at least 500 million devices worldwide.
The new dangers
The group said on its blog that WannaCry is nothing compared to the power of the new virus. Moreover, Shadow Brokers claimed to have available, again thanks to the information stolen from the NSA, malware for browsers, routers, smartphones, and international money transfer network data. According to the blog, the hackers are also in possession of delicate information about missile programs in North Korea and data coming from compromised networks in China, Russia and Iran. What’s worse is that Shadow Brokers has proposed a plan to sell all these stolen hacking tools to the NSA. This could lead to more global cyber attacks in the near future.
Shadow Brokers
The hacker group rose to prominence in August 2016, when they tried to auction off a number of old cyber-espionage tools, which had also been stolen from the NSA. The group has since returned to the headlines with the WannaCry case. It is currently unclear whether Shadow Brokers really has any other tools to generate a global attack. Naming Windows 10, however, has alarmed Microsoft. The US company itself has stated that it will work hard to ensure maximum security for its users in the future.