The Shadow Brokers' Twitter account
Twitter is a social microblogging network managed by Twitter Inc. It allows a user to send free short messages, called tweets, over the internet, by instant messaging or by SMS. These messages are limited to 240 characters. (Wikipedia)
Creation
The Shadow Brokers account on Twitter, @shadowbrokerss, was created on 2016-08-13 at 09:39.
Appearance
The whole account has no customization mark, either by the profile or the background picture of the account, no customization has been made.
Links
Several links were present on The Shadow Brokers Twitter profile:
-
https://blockchain.info/address/19BY2XCgbDe6WtTVbTyzM9eR3LYr6VitWK
This link redirects to a Bitcoin wallet, that of The Shadow Brokers quoted both in the account biography, but especially in messages #1, #3, #8 and #9. -
theshadowbrokers.bit
This link redirects to The Shadow Brokers’ website on the ZeroNet network.
Security
The account doesn’t seem to be heavily protected and Twitter displays this information when trying to reset the account:
us************@t*******.***
This information, although very evasive, allows a comparison with the email address already seen above, the one used by the GitHub account registration:
userll6gcwaknz@tutanota.com
To correlate the latter, we will use the number of characters and the following information, Tutanota wants to be a private and secure messaging service using end-to-end encryption (E2E). We will also see later how a user communicated about receiving information from theso-called The Shadow Brokers from a Tutanota address and that same email address is quoted.
Twitter Followings
The Shadow Brokers account did not subscribe to a multitude of accounts, it specifically chose accounts that were large in size but mostly media accounts. Even if, as we saw in message #9, The Shadow Brokers criticize The New York Times. However, in view of their activity, the audience represented by these media that expose The Shadow Brokers’ actions are a good calculation for a very wide diffusion of their activities.
Followings:
Analysis table of Twitter interactions initiated by The Shadow Brokers
| Twitter Account Name | Order of appearance | Categories | Number of citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| @RT_com | 1 | Media | 3 |
| @cnnbrk | 2 | Media | 1 |
| @time | 3 | Media | 1 |
| @breakingnews | 4 | Media | 1 |
| @bbcbreaking | 5 | Media | 1 |
| @wsj | 6 | Media | 1 |
| @nytimes | 7 | Media | 1 |
| @foxnews | 8 | Media | 1 |
| @newsweek | 9 | Media | 1 |
| @huffingtonpost | 10 | Media | 1 |
| @reuters | 11 | Media | 1 |
| @nprnew | 12 | Media | 1 |
| @usatoday | 13 | Media | 1 |
| @wikileaks | 14 | WhistleBlowing/Activism | 2 |
| @freedomofpress | 15 | Media/WhistleBlowing | 1 |
| @infowars | 16 | Media | 1 |
| @AnonyOps | 17 | Activism | 1 |
| @DarkReading | 18 | Media | 1 |
| @cyberwar | 19 | Individual/Author | 1 |
| @guardian | 20 | Media/WhistleBlowing | 1 |
| @VICE | 21 | Media | 1 |
| @mashable | 22 | Media | 1 |
| @wired | 23 | Media | 1 |
| @kaspersky | 24 | Security Company | 1 |
| @symantec | 25 | Security Company | 1 |
| @PrivacyFanatic | 26 | Individual/Activism | 1 |
| @CBS | 27 | Media | 1 |
| @ABC | 28 | Media | 1 |
| @NBC | 29 | Media | 1 |
| @FOX | 30 | Media | 1 |
| @CNN | 31 | Media | 1 |
| @josephcox | 32 | Journalist | 1 |
| @nweaver | 33 | Individual/Author | 1 |
| @schneierblog | 34 | Security Pro/Author | 1 |
| @shadowbrokerss | 35 | Protagonist | 1 |
| @Snowden | 36 | WhistleBlowing/Activism | 3 |
| @DAlperovitch | 37 | CTO at CrowdStrike (Security company) | 1 |
| @crowdstrike | 38 | Security Company | 1 |
| @HillaryClinton | 39 | Politician | 1 |
| @PutinRF_Eng | 40 | Politician (English Account) | 1 |
| @ZORSecurity | 41 | Individual/Security Account | 1 |
| @badd1e | 42 | Individual/Security Pro | 1 |
| @fur_f4g3t | 43 | Individual/Activism | 1 |
| @RT_Deutsch | 44 | Media | 1 |
| @emptywheel | 45 | Journalist | 2 |
| @e_kaspersky | 46 | CEO of Kaspersky Lab (Security Company) | 1 |
| @realDonaldTrump | 47 | Politician | 2 |
| @malwarejake | 48 | Ancient NSA former/ Security Pro/Individual | 4 |
| @msuiche | 49 | Individual/Security Pro | 8 |
| @steemit | 50 | Media | 1 |
| @hackerfantastic | 51 | Individual/Security Pro | 1 |
| @cypherseek | 52 | Individual/Security | 1 |
| @aarti411 | 53 | Journalist | 1 |
| @thegrugq | 54 | Individual/Security Pro | 1 |
| @taviso | 55 | Individual/Security Pro | 5 |
| @drwolfff | 56 | Individual / Intel Analyst at USAF (Retired) | 6 |
| @kevinmitnick | 57 | Individual/Security Pro | 2 |