WannaCry cyberattack & ransomeware, a creation of North Korea, US says

The U.S. government has named North Korea as the source of the devastating WannaCry cyberattack.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday, Thomas Bossert, Trump’s homeland security assistant, wrote that North Korea is “directly responsible” for the attack that “was widespread and cost billions.”

WannaCry was a ransomware program that spread on Windows-based computers of numerous individuals and institutions in multiple countries in May this year. After infecting a system, the malicious software would encrypt the users’ files and asked for a payment of roughly $300 worth of Bitcoin. In many cases, even paying the ransom did not decrypt the files.

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Back in June, several security researchers pointed out that WannaCry might have originated in North Korea based on code samples of the software, which matched another malicious software previously traced to a hacker group in North Korea. Bossert now says the evidence is conclusive.

“We do not make this allegation lightly. It is based on evidence. We are not alone with our findings, either. Other governments and private companies agree. The United Kingdom attributes the attack to North Korea, and Microsoft traced the attack to cyber affiliates of the North Korean government,” he wrote.

 

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