The Shadow Brokers finds their nickname from a character of the popular video game named Mass Effect. In the video game dimension, this pseudonym designates a broker reselling confidential information to the highest bidder. The motto of this character is: “I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark.” Choosing this moniker is significant because it represents the ideology that The Shadow Brokers wishes to convey.
The composition of this actor is still undetermined. The theory of the lone wolf is supported by the origin of the threat actor moniker, a unique character. Supported too by the first registered email address theshadowbroker@mail.i2p. But this theory is countered by several elements, the most important are after that the threat actor doesn’t use anymore theshadowbroker in the singular anymore. All their other accounts were nicknamed with theshadowbrokers.
Finally, signing messages differently (using GnuPG v1 & SHA1 or GnuPG v2 & SHA2). I think the threat actor have at least two different workstations configurations and he doesn’t have the Pastebin account password on the first configuration.