Shadow Broker exploit dumps five million cyber attacks

More than five million cyber attacks originated from a series of exploit archives dumped onto the internet between April and June this year, according to Kaspersky Lab.

Its software blocked more than five million attacks based on hacking group Shadow Brokers' exploit dumps, but the rate of attacks using these tools is growing; more than 80% were detected during the last 30 days of the quarter.

"The threat landscape of Q2 provides yet another reminder that a lack of vigilance is one of the most significant cyber dangers," said Kaspersky Lab security expert Alexander Liskin.

"While vendors patch vulnerabilities on a regular basis, many users don't pay attention to this, which results in massive-scale attacks once the vulnerabilities are exposed to the broad cyber criminal community."

Shadow Brokers has already had a huge impact of the security landscape. The mysterious group began releasing huge troves of offensive malware and cyber weapons last year, many of which were allegedly created and used by US intelligence agencies such as the NSA.

The latest dump, which occurred in April this year, included a number of highly sophisticated tools. It was considered by many experts to be one of the most dangerous and damaging leaks in cyber security history.

Alongside codenamed exploits including DarkPulsar, OddJob and FuzzBunch, the dump included the EternalBlue exploit targeting elements of the Windows OS. This malware in particular was an instrumental part of the WannaCry ransomware that nearly crippled organisations including the NHS, before it was stopped by security researcher Marcus Hutchins.