“Three major anti-virus companies in U.S. victim of hacking.

Researchers at security company Advanced Intelligence (AdvIntel) have revealed that a group of Russian and English-speaking hackers claim to have hacked three American anti-virus companies. The collective calls itself Fxmsp.

The collective would actively try to sell stolen data. They sell both source codes and network access to the companies for $300,000. They have also released samples of their stolen data, which, according to Ars Technica, are strong proof that their claims are true.

Yelisey Boguslavskiy, the director of AdvIntel, tells Ars Technica that his company has informed the potential victims through partner organisations. It also passed on the details to the American police. According to Boguslavskiy, Fxmsp offered the data in March “in a private conversation”. “However, they claimed that their proxy vendors would announce the sale on forums.”

However, it is not known exactly which companies would have been hacked. It is unclear why the names of the companies affected have not been disclosed.

Fxmsp

Fxmsp is no stranger to the security community. The group has also previously sold access to hacks, focusing on large, global companies and government organisations. They were further specifically mentioned in a 2018 FireEye report on cybercrime, for selling access to business networks worldwide.

AdvIntel researchers state that the group has sold “verifiable business leaks”, making a profit of nearly one million dollars. Over the past two years, Fxmsp has been working to establish a network of proxy resellers to promote access to the hack collection and sell it through criminal marketplaces.

The group said in March that they could provide exclusive information that had been stolen from three major anti-virus companies in the United States, according to the researchers. “These include anti-virus programs, analytical code based on machine learning, and security plug-ins for browsers.