The global epidemic of Wannacry ransomware infections was the result of petty criminals fusing an old ransomware strain with a leaked NSA cyberweapon that was released by The Shadow Brokers, and the result was tens of millions of dollars’ worth of economic harm.
A new ransomware epidemic, dubbed “Bad Rabbit,” is also spreading at an unprecedented rate thanks to its use of “Eternalromance,” an open source Python version of the NSA’s Eternalsynergy tool, which was also dumped by the Shadow Brokers.
Eternalromance/Eternalsynergy exploit a bug in Microsoft’s SMB protocol. This bug was discovered or purchased by the NSA, who chose to withhold its existence from Microsoft, deliberately ensuring that the bug would remain intact on computers worldwide, so the NSA could attack them at will. This doctrine is called “NOBUS” – “No One But Us” – and it only works if no one ever independently rediscovers the NSA’s bugs, and if the NSA never loses control of its exploits. Both have been known to happen.
Death By Catchphrase 