It used to be feared by burglars who could run in with guns and take everything. Now they are afraid of hackers, who are becoming more and more sneaky every year. But cyber security does not stand still. It now takes a whole team of hackers to pull off a hack.
Of course, just the number of hackers is not enough. They deploy powerful resources and a variety of tools to accomplish their tasks. The algorithms for hacks become even more sophisticated, and even more difficult to detect because of the use of vast distributed networks.
But contrary to popular belief, hackers are not just negative characters. They also often form teams that actively fight cybercrime around the world.
Anonymous
This team has been around for many years. Some even call Anonymous the most legendary hacker group. Anonymous is believed to have been founded in 2003.
This group does not show any political affiliation. Their actions are aimed at granting freedom of speech and opposing censorship by the government. At the same time, this company of like-minded people has for many years been working against terrorists, cartels and porn distributors.
The anonymity of all team members is concealed with the simplest of tricks: changing their voices and using a Guy Fawkes character mask. In their messages they have supported the Occupy Wall Street and WikiLeaks movements on numerous occasions. Because of this, however, they were repeatedly cited in criminal chronicles as cyber stalkers and more.
How do they work? Powerful DDoS attacks accompanied by offline crunches are the hallmark of Anonymous. In 2012, the hacking team was even featured in an article by Time! Their editorial board then included the Anonymous club-hackers in the list of 100 greatest phenomena of the planet.
Lizard Squad
One of the youngest hacker teams ever. The team members were between 15 and 17 years old. These guys are real game enthusiasts, who wanted to make the game providers aware of the need to improve their software in particular with regard to the security of players’ personal data and game servers in general. They tried to get their message across with DDoS attacks on the League of Legends and Call of Duty game servers.
They were also credited with divulging confidential Sony information and a number of other serious attacks on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. This way they showed security holes and how user data could simply fall into the wrong hands.
It should be noted that their claims have been noticed. The lizards were heard. Sony and Microsoft have been busy fine-tuning their cyber security. But unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, these young computer geniuses were exposed by another group of hackers and were soon arrested.
Equation Group
Equation Group hackers have been around since at least 2001. They were first identified by the Russian firm Kaspersky, who spotted hundreds of malicious attacks and attempts to break through their security. Notably, they were named for their method of operation, namely the use of encryption algorithms with specific implementation features in the malware samples they used. And once all the necessary actions have been completed, the malware can self-destruct.
There is speculation that the Equation Group is a division of the US National Security Agency. There is no concrete confirmation of this, but their line of work suggests so. The team has been seen repeatedly attacking governments in Eastern Europe and the Near and Middle East. There is also speculation that hackers from this team are gathering intelligence for the U.S. and even starting cyber wars.
But despite such clear action, the group failed in 2016. More specifically, on August 13, 2016, another team of hackers, The Shadow Brokers, posted stolen Equation Group data. Some of these files were put up for sale and the bid was not small – 1 million bitcoins. Another portion of the files was made publicly available. Among them were scripts to install and configure the malicious PL used by the team. The names of some of the tools were the same as those previously disclosed by Edward Snowden.
Cicada 3301
It is a relatively new group, which is currently actively recruiting members for its community. The “entry ticket” to the Cicada 3301 team is given to those who have solved the given puzzles and all the levels of the game. Not the usual computer game, but the one that maximises the talent and knowledge of the hacker-recruiter.
And although the team has been recruiting members since 2012, and sets repeated several times, the information that happens to those who have passed all the puzzle-game unfortunately not. The hacking team has yet to declare its goals or intentions. But perhaps they are simply conducting their activities in a more secretive manner than the groups described above.