The hacker group called “Shadow Brokers” has released documents that it says describe National Security Agency techniques to exploit commercially available software in order to access the SWIFT money-transfer system, Reuters reported Sunday.
Clare Baldwin and Joseph Menn write that Comae Technologies Founder Matt Suiche indicated in the company’s analysis of the documents that NSA utilized vulnerabilities in Microsoft software and Cisco firewalls to gain entry through Middle Eastern and Latin American transfer service providers.
Suiche told Reuters that the leaked data shows NSA penetrated the Adaptive Security Appliance security firewall with a tool dubbed “BARGLEE” then used exploits to target SWIFT-connected computer servers running old versions of Windows in 2013.
The report said SWIFT transfers are a “natural” target for intelligence agencies in efforts to track the flow of money that funds terrorist and criminal groups.