Kaspersky blew whistle on National Security Agency hacking tool hoarder



Kaspersky passed suspicious Twitter messages from Martin to United States government.
Harold T. Martin III, a former government contractor, remains facing trial for the alleged larceny of large amounts of National Security Agency information, together with documents and Hacking Tools from the NSA's Tailored Access Operations Division. Now, a brand new report by Kim Zetter for political leader suggests that the NSA and also the Justice Department tracked  down Martin because of info shared by associate degree ironic source: the Moscow-based malware protection company Kaspersky research laboratory. Citing two anonymous sources acquainted with the investigation, Zetter reports that Kaspersky research laboratory staff passed info on Martin to the United States government once he sent uncommon direct messages via Twitter to the company in 2016.
Kaspersky passed the United States government five messages from associate degree anonymous Twitter account named to two researchers at the corporate. the primary message, sent Assumption of Mary, 2016, requested that a man of science facilitate a speech communication with "Yevgeny," the forename of Kaspersky research laboratory founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky. "So, make out however we have a tendency to speak... With Yevgeny gift," the message browse. The second message: "Shelf life, three weeks."
The messages came simply half-hour before Somebody Business themselves Shadow Brokers drop a link to a group of United States intelligence agency tools in an exceedingly Tumblr post and proclaimed extra tools would be auctioned off for one million Bitcoin.
After responding to the messages, each Kaspersky researchers were promptly blocked by the account, in step with Politico's sources. Analysis of the account by Kaspersky researchers coupled it to Martin and work he did for the United States National Intelligence Community. That prompted Kaspersky staff to achieve resolute the United States intelligence agency, as they believed it would be connected to the Shadow Brokers case.
Martin was inactive on August twenty seven, 2016. His case remains unfinished, and his attorneys are fighting to induce the Justice Department to produce full copies of the proof within the case. The Twitter messages were 1st disclosed in an exceedingly court ruling during which United States District Court choose Richard Bennett denied a motion by attorneys for Martin to suppress proof within the case as a result of the govt had used the messages because the basis for an enquiry.
There's no bit of irony within the detail, as Kaspersky's software system and services are illegal for state use by a law signed by President Donald Trump in Gregorian calendar month of 2017. Kaspersky has been defendant of sharing information from antivirus agent software system with Russian intelligence, and Kaspersky information could are accustomed determine a pc storing United States intelligence agency information. Kaspersky issued a report claiming that the corporate had detected files related to the United States intelligence agency "Equation Group" hacking tools once a Kaspersky customer's pc became infected with a backdoor prepacked with pirated Microsoft workplace software system.

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