Hacker group Shadow Brokers has allegedly proved the US National Security Agency (NSA) hacked SWIFT international banking network. In documents and files released Friday, the group said it had evidence the NSA used SWIFT to “monitor money flows among some Middle Eastern and Latin American banks.” The news marks the second time Shadow Brokers has laid claim to compromising NSA secrets. In August 2016, the group said it had entered an agency affiliate and taken details of cyberweapons, which it planned to auction for one million bitcoins.
The US has plenty of muscle power and is not afraid to use it. Although SWIFT is a neutral, third party, the US might even be able to armtwist it into giving information. They needn't have gone to the extent of hacking it.
Arm-twisting will leave a bad impression on people, especially when it gets out into the media. Better to just hack into their system. The NSA probably believed they would be untraceable, that SWIFT would be none the wiser.
Of course the hacking report did come out but then again the mass is not really tech-savvy anyway to be able to verify it. Besides it was a hacker group that released the statement so they would probably just be skeptical.
