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Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

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51–60 of 151 posts

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 1 million BTC on the line, you have a hard time imagining that someone would do this? People do work for a lot less..

That's 6.3% of all Bitcoin currently in circulation. A crazy amount.

1,000,000 Bitcoin == 563,770,000.00 USD

https://www.google.com/search?q=1000000+btc+in+usd

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#52
post #37
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Everything about this auction is lined up to incentivize a scam. Yes, however the contents of the free sample seems very real. Without having dug into the binaries it's hard to tell, but it's hard to imagine someone wrote this to scam 1 million BTC out of the net.

> Yes, however the contents of the free sample seems very real. The only people who could verify if it's real are the Equation Group themself. For anyone else it's impossible to verify - it's just some names. So: If it's real the Equation Group will bid - probably a lot. If it's fake no one will bid. So it'll be easy to tell which it is.

Please ignore; corrected below.

> So it'll be easy to tell which it is.

~~How can you tell how others have bid?~~

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#53
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, however the contents of the free sample seems very real. The only people who could verify if it's real are the Equation Group themself. For anyone else it's impossible to verify - it's just some names. So: If it's real the Equation Group will bid - probably a lot. If it's fake no one will bid. So it'll be easy to tell which it is.

Please ignore; corrected below. > So it'll be easy to tell which it is. ~~How can you tell how others have bid?~~

https://blockr.io/address/info/19BY2XCgbDe6WtTVbTyzM9eR3LYr6...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#54
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, however the contents of the free sample seems very real. The only people who could verify if it's real are the Equation Group themself. For anyone else it's impossible to verify - it's just some names. So: If it's real the Equation Group will bid - probably a lot. If it's fake no one will bid. So it'll be easy to tell which it is.

Please ignore; corrected below. > So it'll be easy to tell which it is. ~~How can you tell how others have bid?~~

Its bitcoin. https://blockchain.info/address/19BY2XCgbDe6WtTVbTyzM9eR3LYr...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is effectively a "penny auction," which, as you point out, benefits nobody but the auctioneers.

Please ignore; corrected below. ~~A silent penny auction :|~~

Its not silent. Its completely public. https://blockchain.info/address/19BY2XCgbDe6WtTVbTyzM9eR3LYr...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#56
post #9

The structure of this auction is amazing! 1. All bids are paid up front, and you never get your money back, even if you aren't the highest bidder. So if people bid $50, $70, and $100, they collect $220. 2. No one can verify what is actualy up for sale before the auction. 3. There is no way for the world to know that they actualy delivered the goods after the auction. 4. There is no way for the highest bidder to know…

> 4. There is no way for the highest bidder to know that they will actually receive the goods. Or for the highest bidder to even know that they won.

Its very easy to tell who the highest bidder is. https://blockchain.info/address/19BY2XCgbDe6WtTVbTyzM9eR3LYr...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#57

Wikipedia link for the lazy folks like me that didn't know the Equation Group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group

> The malware used in their operations, dubbed EquationDrug and GrayFish, is found to be capable of reprogramming hard disk drive firmware.

Wow. We really are f----d all the way down the stack.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#58
Isn't this obviously a hoax? The screenshots are not at all what I would expect -- python files? shell scripts? in the face of esoteric pieces of C software like stuxnet?

Add on the fact that the author of the readme is clearly writing in an exaggerated Russian / East European accent, with such wild claims and mystery surrounding the terms of the auction...I would suspect joke or alternate reality game more quickly than a hack of Equation Group.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#59
post #9

The structure of this auction is amazing! 1. All bids are paid up front, and you never get your money back, even if you aren't the highest bidder. So if people bid $50, $70, and $100, they collect $220. 2. No one can verify what is actualy up for sale before the auction. 3. There is no way for the world to know that they actualy delivered the goods after the auction. 4. There is no way for the highest bidder to know…

If they were really serious, they would be using Dark Leaks.
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