FBI Probes Dumping Of NSA Hack Tools On Public Site

An FBI investigation into the public dumping of hacking tools used by the National Security Agency (NSA) to uncover security flaws in some networking vendor products is looking at how the tools were exposed on a remote computer, a Reuters report says, quoting people close to the investigation.

Sources say NSA believes it was an inadvertent act by an employee or contractor, but the NSA did not inform manufacturers of the leak because sensors employed to detect misuse of the tools came up empty-handed. NSA may have wanted to take advantage of the theft to gather intelligence and improve its defense, adds the exclusive.

Officials believe the tools were dumped by a state-sponsored group, likely Russia, because it did not attempt to sell them.

The dumping, says a cyber expert, could be an agenda on the part of the criminals to test the waters before moving further.

Read Reuters exclusive here.