The Dark Overlord 9/11 Papers: Layer Three Decrypted

Shortly before the New Year, a hacker group that calls itself The Dark Overlord made major waves online. On December 31st, they claimed to have possession of a large collection of files that would explain a hidden truth about the terror attacks of 9/11. Dubbing the megaleak of files the “9/11 Papers”, The Dark Overlord divided the releases into five major waves.

In early January, the hacker group released the first batch on Steemit for Bitcoin payments. After the platform removed them, they maintained their presence on Busy.org. Just a few days later, after they reached the next donation tier, they publicized wave two. Now, after a long pause, it appears that The Dark Overlord has released layer three, which they promise to be the most damaging one so far.

The Dark Overlord and Previous Hacks

Previously, the hacker group has made a number of major leaks. Notably, they published episodes of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” in 2017. They have also successfully hacked some major companies such as Lloyds of London, Silverstein Properties, and Larson Studios. But they hope that their latest release series will top even the work of Edward Snowden. Unlike Snowden, however, The Dark Overlord does not claim to be a hacktivist group with altruistic ends. Though they seek to publish the truth, they declared in a New Year’s Eve press release that their ultimate goal is profit.

We’re not hacktivists. We’re motivated only by our pursuit of internet money (Bitcoin). -thedarkoverlord

The hacker group has faced deplatforming from many major social media networks. Twitter, YouTube, and Steemit have all removed the 9/11 papers that they have released. Twitter and Steemit have also deactivated the group’s accounts entirely. They also claim that they have evidence the FBI and CIA are both hunting them down. As an international group, however, it is difficult to say exactly what legal action they would face.

So far, there have been a number of important documents that The Dark Overlord has released. Notably, one detailed an event about a month prior to 9/11. Hollywood Actor James Woods was sitting in first class on a flight from Boston to Los Angeles with four men who looked Middle-Eastern. The men would not eat, drink, or sleep, and sat upright, talking in hushed tones. Woods reported the men to flight staff, but there was never any investigation. One month later, those men hijacked the flight that they crashed into the World Trade Centers. Snopes has confirmed that Woods indeed did fly with and identify at least two of the terrorists, if not all four.

The 9/11 Papers: Layer Three

Nearly two months after the first wave came out, an encryption key for the third section was released. Motherboard reported that the leak contains thousands of documents and some are between numerous law firms. A message on a link paste website gave an encryption key to this layer of files, which has since been verified as working.

When The Dark Overlord released layer two, cybersecurity expert Vinny Troia claimed that the group had shared a part of layer three with him. He suggested that “the data looks legit” and that they had compromised at least two law firms.

The Dark Overlord update: More on the 9/11 breach from #thedarkoverlord – they have shared a part of their “layer 3” data files with me. The data looks legit. Lots of legal documents and emails. It looks like 2 different law firms’ email servers have been compromised.

— Vinny Troia (@vinnytroia) January 6, 2019

Over 8,000 emails make up the 5GB of data in layer three. Now, anyone can decrypt the information using the secure key. Looking forward, The Dark Overlord plans to eventually release layers four and five as they continue to get more money.