American authorities are still investigating into how a set of hacking tools from the National Security Agency (NSA) landed in the hands of a hacker group, Shadow Brokers, who then bleed it out online. The hacking tools can let hackers exploit software flaws in computer and communications systems from vendors such as the tech company Cisco Systems.
Authorities are digging up on a theory that one NSA operative used the hacking tools on a remote PC three years ago. They believe the NSA operative left the tools exposed in the remote computer, and that's why the Russian hackers got a hold of them, according to Reuters.
As the exploits allow users to take advantage of the software flaws of a security system, they can target a number of companies' products in particular, which include the company's firewalls and routers, in which it puts their customers at risk.
Edward Snowden as well as some security experts pinned the Russian hackers over the leak from the start. As Russia is being blamed for several high-profile cyber breaches in the United States, which includes the most recent Guccifer 2.0 leak that was packed with documents from the Democratic National Convention, based on the report of Engadget.
However, as to whether or not the NSA operative left the hacking tools behind purposefully or not, is a question that authorities are still trying to discover. Reports also claim that there might be more than one person at the headquarters or a remote location made the same mistakes or compounded each other's slip ups, BGR reported.
Anyway, representatives of the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the office of the Director of National Intelligence, all declined to comment about the cyber breach.
Nevertheless, right after the hack was discovered, the NSA turned on its sensors to detect the use of any of the tools by other parties, such as China and Russia.
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