The Secret's Out: NSA Personnel are out-hacking the Chinese and Russians

The exposure of an all-star hacker group thought to be affiliated with the National Security Agency is both a feather in the spy agency's cap and a setback for intelligence-gathering on Islamic extremists, some threat analysts say. Kaspersky Lab, a research firm headquartered in Moscow, published an analysis implying the "Equation Group" is the same entity behind the so-called Stuxnet worm. That malware is believed to be a joint NSA-Israeli invention that sabotaged Iran's nuclear centrifuges in 2009 or 2010.

The Equation group is “the most advanced threat actor we have seen," researchers at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team said. Over the past several years, the team has investigated more than 60 advanced attackers. The outing of the group could foil some NSA plans, if the agency is indeed involved, said Alex McGeorge, head of threat intelligence at seucirty firm Immunity. However, the amount of time lost will not be measured in years. "It’s definitely going to be a setback. It’s definitely going to ruffle a lot of feathers and ruin several days," McGeorge said, but “I don't think this is the end of a career or the end of our intelligence gathering capability against ISIS."