The Shadow Brokers hacker group announced a new exploit dump for the NSA, offering it for sale for as little as 100 ZEC (about $ 23,000 at the current exchange rate). It is noteworthy that while The Shadow Brokers claim that Zcash is not a reliable anonymous currency and connect it with the governments of the United States and Israel.
In a fresh blog entry on the Steemit platform, hackers report that the dump will be available between June 6 and June 30, but its exact content is not yet disclosed.
But the most curious part of the record is devoted to the Zcash crypto currency: in spite of the fact that it is chosen as a payment method, The Shadow Brokers recognize that they can not consider it completely safe.
"If you are experiencing because of the possible loss of more than 20 thousand, then it is not for you. A monthly dump is designed for large players, hackers, security companies, equipment manufacturers and governments. This game involves risks, and Zcash is associated with US governments (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Ministry of Defense, Johns Hopkins University) and Israel, "the report said.
Reasoning about the reasons why the government structures are related to Zcash, The Shadow Brokers, however, are not ready to give any one universal answer.
"Who knows! Perhaps the US government needs channels to send money outside of banking structures and to cover foreign assets. Maybe it's a Trojan horse with cryptographic vulnerabilities that only the NSA can exploit. Or maybe it's not about money at all? Let's try to find out. This month we use Zcash, and if this method does not work for us, in July we will try something else. "
Recall that in 2016 a group of hackers calling themselves The Shadow Brokers, managed to steal the hacker tools from the NSA specialists. For a long time, hackers tried in vain to sell the "cyber weapons" that fell into their hands, but they failed to hold the auction or find a direct buyer, after which the group published stolen data for free, in open access.
At the same time in January, the group announced its self-dissolution, but it seems that it continues its activities.