SHADOW BROKERS SAY U.S. AGENCY SPIED ON MIDDLE EAST BANKS

April 21, 2017

Hacker group Shadow Brokers released data that appears to show that the NSA penetrated deep into the finance infrastructure of the Middle East. The published documents, if legitimate, show how U.S. intelligence compromised elements of the global banking system by hacking into Dubai’s EastNets, which oversees payments in the global SWIFT transaction system for dozens of client banks in the Middle East. The leak includes detailed lists of hacked or potentially targeted computers, including those belonging to firms in Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. Also included in the data dump are fresh hacking tools, this time targeting a slew of Windows versions. SWIFT has been increasingly targeted by hackers seeking to redirect millions of dollars from banks around the world, with recent efforts in India, Ecuador and Bangladesh. Security researchers pointed to clues that an $81 million Bangladesh bank theft via SWIFT may have been the work of the North Korean government. But the Shadow Brokers’ latest leak offers new evidence that the NSA also has compromised SWIFT, most likely for silent espionage.

Source: Wired