14 DAY TRIAL // Infamous hacking group Shadow Brokers has promised to release more zero-day exploits, such as the one that has made life a misery for some 300,000 people across the world via WannaCry. Now, the group isn't just after wreaking havoc, but also after making some money, since the releases will be made for a special club where access costs north of $21,000.
The promise for the release was made weeks ago, but now the group has more details about how this whole thing will go down.
The hacking collective says that, in order to participate, you'll have to sign up for the monthly subscription model - the "Wine of Month Club," as they put it. This will give people access to the upcoming leaks each month starting June.
In order to subscribe, people are asked to send 100ZEC (Zcash) to an address anytime in June, and include a delivery email address in the encrypted memo field when sending the money. A confirmation email will be sent and somewhere between July 1 and 17, the leak will be released via a mass email with a link and password for the June 2017 dump.
Not a club for just anyone
Zcash is a digital currency that promises more privacy than Bitcoin offers. However, the hacking group does not promise people's transactions will be protected, as that's out of their hands. On the other hand, the hackers mention that if losing over $20,000 is problematic for you, then you're not supposed to be a member of their club.
The monthly dump, as they put it, is for high rollers, hackers, security companies, OEMs, and governments.
Furthermore, the group taunts people, saying they won't reveal what the next dump will be about. As they point out, it's mostly a matter of whether an organization can afford not being the first to get access to the dump or not.
That being said, if, for instance, the vulnerability ShadowBrokers will reveal targets Windows, and Microsoft gets its hands on the dump, they can quickly get to work and release a patch before hackers can release malware that exploits it. Similarly, security companies can be on the lookout for malware that specifically targets a certain vulnerability and be prepared to detect it and blacklist it.