Hacking attacks on businesses and civilians worldwide from leaked NSA hacking tools

Current and former NSA (National Security Agency) officials say the Shadow Brokers disclosures, which began in August 2016, have been catastrophic for the N.S.A., calling into question its ability to protect potent cyberweapons and its very value to national security.

The New York Times has the latest report on the Shadow Brokers leaks.

Fifteen months into a wide-ranging investigation by the agency’s counterintelligence arm, known as Q Group, and the F.B.I., officials still do not know whether the N.S.A. is the victim of a brilliantly executed hack, with Russia as the most likely perpetrator, an insider’s leak, or both. Three employees have been arrested since 2015 for taking classified files, but there is fear that one or more leakers may still be in place. And there is broad agreement that the damage from the Shadow Brokers already far exceeds the harm to American intelligence done by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor who fled with four laptops of classified material in 2013.

* experienced specialists are leaving the NSA for better-paying jobs — including with firms defending computer networks from intrusions that use the N.S.A.’s leaked tools.