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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday May 28 2019, @02:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the pandora's-box dept.

For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.

But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.

Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.

It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs.

The N.S.A. connection to the attacks on American cities has not been previously reported, in part because the agency has refused to discuss or even acknowledge the loss of its cyberweapon, dumped online in April 2017 by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Years later, the agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation still do not know whether the Shadow Brokers are foreign spies or disgruntled insiders.

Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins University, called the Shadow Brokers episode “the most destructive and costly N.S.A. breach in history,” more damaging than the better-known leak in 2013 from Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.

“The government has refused to take responsibility, or even to answer the most basic questions,” Mr. Rid said. “Congressional oversight appears to be failing. The American people deserve an answer.”


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:23PM (1 child)

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Tuesday May 28 2019, @07:23PM (#848629)

    If only the NSA was actually used to secure domestic information rather than attack information systems (foreign and domestic), the holes used by this tool would have been patched years ago. No. They are still too useful for them to avail themselves of. "Let the country burn - we have work to do securing the country!"

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @08:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 28 2019, @08:18PM (#848651)

    That's only because idiots still use NSA Windows.