Shadow Brokers Calls It Quits After Failing To Get Buyers For NSA Exploits
But group says it is still willing to dump its collection of Linux and Windows tools if it gets 10,000 bitcoins.
1/12/2017Just days after offering for sale a database of Windows exploits allegedly purloined from an outfit thought to be affiliated with the National Security Agency (NSA), the infamous ShadowBrokers hacking crew has apparently decided to call it quits.
As a parting gift, they released an archive of nearly five-dozen Windows hacking tools for free Thursday in an apparent last ditch effort to convince potential buyers of the authenticity of their goods.
They also promised to come out of hiding and still release a collection of Linux and Windows exploits in their possession to anyone willing to pay the equivalent of slightly more than $8 million (10,000 bitcoins at current rates) for it.
In a parting note on the group’s website, the Shadow Brokers claimed the decision to go dark had to do entirely with money, or rather the fact they hadn’t made as much of it as expected from their hacking wares.
The language in the note appeared almost deliberately contrived to make it seem as if members of the group are non-native English speakers. “Despite theories, it always being about bitcoins for TheShadowBrokers,” the note claimed. “Free dumps and bullshit political talk was being for marketing attention.”
The farewell note expressed the group’s disappointment with their lack of success in finding buyers for attack tools they had tried to auction off last year and admonished people for not believing in the Shadow Brokers...