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Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

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Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#101

Post by tetrep »

djsumdog wrote: post #95
tedmiston wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

SD Cards have a full 32-bit processor on them. You can find videos on hacking them. In theory, you can re-label a 32GB card as 16GB, create a 16GB journey and write two copies of everything stored to it. Then you just steal the card back and get all the data off it.

> Then you just steal the card back and get all the data off it.

If you're stealing hardware, the only thing you're not capable of already is (necessarily) being able to decrypt it. So this would apply to any unencrypted SD card. Not terribly effective use of the hack.

A better one would be to do so with one of those WiFi SD cards[0] and transmit the data over the network. You could just read it directly from the card and place deleted files into your buffer when you overwrite them, and hope they don't delete more than your buffer's size of data before you can upload it.

[0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Vendor_enhancem...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#102

Post by Leon »

daveloyall wrote: post #61

Speculation: Maybe the NSA isn't EQ Group. Maybe the NSA is the auctioneers. "You want record straight? Bid!" The CIA has a long history of being self funding, right? Does the NSA, too?

I agree, but I'd take it one step further. This could be CIA or NSA exposing just enough information given already known public information on the equation group.

At that point it would look completely legit, but could be used to track back large amounts of Bitcoin. If the NSA knows through listening stations which adversary groups are sending how much BTC then they'll be able to follow the leads back significantly.

Combining technical knowledge of trades and BTC movement with CIA knowledge of on-the-ground information may net them some fantastic information.

With the addition of getting a large about of BTC for future funding. That would be a powerful move.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#104

Post by CAAD10 »

danielvf wrote: 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…

It makes sense if they know they've released information that the person who this was leaked from can absolutely verify it's legitimacy, and wants to keep it secret at all costs while also maximizing return.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#105

Post by benmmurphy »

danielvf wrote: 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…

it actually makes no sense to set it up like a penny auction. like if you are scamming why not just let people bid by sending you bitcoin then promise to return it if their bid fails but then instead just keep the coin. if you are legitimate then why run it like a scam. i'm sure there is some explanation.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#109

Post by ars »

jandrese wrote: post #91
ars wrote: 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.

Wouldn't the Equation Group just hack their systems and erase the code?

Can they? The real world is not like a TV show - you can't just hack into any arbitrary system and expect you'll get in.

Some systems you can get into some you can't.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#110

Post by ars »

double_blink wrote: post #44

Just want to make this as clear as possible. Throwaway account, so I won't be replying or ever using this ever again, but let me run through a few things. * Whomever is running this auction knows everything that has been mentioned in these threads already, and they're probably a few steps ahead of us all. There are multiple indicators that they know what they're doing from a technical standpoint and that it's very li…

> I plan to bid a couple dozen BTC or so

You plan to bid $5,000 to $20,000 for this? Are you serious? Where do you work?!?

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