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NSA Links WannaCry To North Korea (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Washington Post: The National Security Agency has linked the North Korean government to the creation of the WannaCry computer worm that affected more than 300,000 people in some 150 countries last month, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The assessment, which was issued internally last week and has not been made public, is based on an analysis of tactics, techniques and targets that point with "moderate confidence" to North Korea's spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, according to an individual familiar with the report. The assessment states that "cyber actors" suspected to be "sponsored by" the RGB were behind two versions of WannaCry, a worm that was built around an NSA hacking tool that had been obtained and posted online last year by an anonymous group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Though the assessment is not conclusive, the preponderance of the evidence points to Pyongyang. It includes the range of computer Internet protocol addresses in China historically used by the RGB, and the assessment is consistent with intelligence gathered recently by other Western spy agencies. It states that the hackers behind WannaCry are also called "the Lazarus Group," a name used by private-sector researchers.

99 comments

  1. Quick! by fabriciom · · Score: 0

    Build me a virus or your whole family will die! Right away supreme leader...

  2. Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How convenient

    1. Re:Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you mean, "How conveeeeeeenient"

    2. Re:Oh by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      NK has gained nothing from this. Maybe a small amount of cash that they can't do much with anyway.

      NK is now the default option to blame when you don't have a clue - they deny everything anyway so no-one will take their denial as proof that you are wrong.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re: Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For whom? It makes no difference if it was NK, Eastern European Organized Crime, or fking Anonymous. What is interesting is that the targets were exclusivley western. And it makes sense that, with mounting sanctions, NK would do what they have to to make a buck, especially at the expense of the countries driving and supporting the sanctions.

    4. Re:Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NSA-hat1: "Now remember to "hide" something about "Pyonyang" in the code."
      Hired-Haxxor: Ok, boss.

    5. Re: Oh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The targets were worldwide; most infections in Russia.

  3. It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honestly such hypocrisy and double standards - the nsa hacks get leaked all the time and used for evil but when its another government doing it everyone must get up in arms about it! But as the dumbo in chief always says, its #fakesnews don't believe it folks!

    1. Re:It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nation states are partisan: News at 11

    2. Re:It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, but is there something about psychology 101 that you don't understand? We are surrounded by hypocrisy. As you can see it is very profitable. And it has no effect on the vote count, so, why not? If people want to elect hypocrites, who are we to argue? It just illustrates the failure of majority rule. That is the real issue. How do we protect ourselves from the idiot majority?

    3. Re: It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The side that can spell "are you."

    4. Re: It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but the NSA doesn't infect healthcare networks with ransomware and demand bitcoin payments. They surely do their fair share of offensive cyber operations, but not like criminals looking to score a buck.

    5. Re: It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Forgive him, he's American. They can't spell even if their money would depend on it.

    6. Re:It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      It's ironic because the NSA actually made these weapons.
      Also, whoever did wannaCry was seriously amateur. I'm not impressed with the NSA "secret analysis." The NSA is known to be liars for propaganda purposes.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re: It's only bad when they do it, not us!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Forgive him, he's not American. He cannot understand the difference between the word "can't" and "couldn't" when used to in a sentence set in the future tense.

  4. So which is it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wannacry or wannacrypt or ivanahumpalot?

    1. Re:So which is it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      heh

  5. Funny! by helsinki92 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pot, meet Kettle. NSA finds the exploit and North Korea weaponizes it and sends it into the wild.

    1. Re:Funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may be the beginning of something beautiful. After all, this is how adversaries turn into friends. Damn... I got a manly tear in my eye now.

    2. Re:Funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember when I said, "We're not so different, you and I?"

  6. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't beleive anything three letter agencies say any more about this stuff. It's already leaked that they have stockpiled these sorts of voilnerabilities and it was also shown in Wikileaks that they can and do impersonate other countries.

    How do we know this isn't the Military Industrial complex trying to secure more lucrative sales?

    1. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How do we know you're not a paid shill employed by foreign nations to help undermine public trust in American agencies?

    2. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't beleive anything three letter agencies say any more about this stuff. It's already leaked that they have stockpiled these sorts of voilnerabilities and it was also shown in Wikileaks that they can and do impersonate other countries.

      How do we know this isn't the Military Industrial complex trying to secure more lucrative sales?

      North Korea is constantly threatening with physical tests using actual missiles. Somehow I don't see how a virtual threat is necessary in order to bolster budget justification to mitigate the risks related to that country and its regime. With threats splashing down closer and closer each year, the justification tends to be rather blatant.

      Besides, I don't think it was them. If their missile program is any indication, they don't have hackers smart enough to execute a virtual attack even with borrowed code.

    3. Re:Bullshit by Kiaser+Zohsay · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The only TLA that applies here is "CYA". I guess they think it's less embarrassing for another state actor to weaponize their leaked vulnerabilities than for some script kiddies scamming for bitcoin to do it.

      --
      I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
    4. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      North Korea doesn't have money didn'tyaknow.

    5. Re:Bullshit by DarenN · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Pyonyang has been financing itself for years by cyber attacks on large banks - they have quite sophisticated hacking abilities. They've also been under sustained cyber attack themselves (if a NK missile goes walkabout on test firing there's a fair chance it was compromised although it's not definite because they do have other quality issues) so I assume that they are reasonably sophisticated in cyber defense.

      --
      Rational thought is the only true freedom
    6. Re:Bullshit by Coisiche · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well except for all those Bitcoins they just made out of WannaCry (allegedly).

    7. Re:Bullshit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't believe anything three letter agencies say any more.

      Damn right! Just last week I got a letter telling me my car could have an "accident" in the near future because of "faulty parts". Well, fuck you KIA.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    8. Re:Bullshit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Besides, I don't think it was them. If their missile program is any indication, they don't have hackers smart enough to execute a virtual attack even with borrowed code.

      Even if they had hackers, would they have computers for them?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    9. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you honestly think foreign governments have to pay anyone to undermine trust in your three letter agencies ? They do that themselves pretty efficiently.

    10. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > If their missile program is any indication

      Their missile programme actually failed because CIA managed to infect them with a variant of the Tilde (Stuxnet) malware platform previously used against Iran's nuclear effort. For years the communists' rocket test data sets were metodically falsified and confused by the malware before Kaspersky found it. (That's why Senate got angry about Kaspersky last month.) Anyhow, it will take years for DPRK to start everything about big rocketry from sketch! This was disclosed in NY Times, I think, a few months ago. God bless America!

    11. Re:Bullshit by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      They make their own Super Notes which perfectly like American money.

    12. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's stupid. So there's malware that knows how missiles work and when it detects your doing it right it starts messing with your math?
      So it can be reversed to find the right formulas?
      Great fuckin plan.

    13. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you realize that the DRPK is actually still in war with the US ? How about proposing a peace agreement before complaining that a country doesn't accept to be destroyed by the US? Yes they make threats, actually developing a nuclear weapon that can hit US mainland is their only chance of survival, judging from what happened in other countries.

    14. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because no one needs to be paid off to undermine trust in American agencies. Given enough time they will do that to them selves. Why would the agencies undermine the public trust? simply because the people who run those agencies are more concerned with personal interests and power rather than the good of the country. They are looking at the contracts that they can get from the government when they start their own contracting agencies after leaving government service or a nice cushy spot on a board of directors of an existing defense contractor.

    15. Re:Bullshit by rabidMacBigot() · · Score: 1

      Even if they had hackers, would they have computers for them?

      They actually have their own Linux distro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    16. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This.... Now you know why US has an sanctions against NK. This is not about Nukes; it's about money. If that little boy over there would grow up and shut up; his country would do much better; and he could keep his nukes. And stop flooding the counterfeit market with $100 bills.

          As it is; he's going to give the big 3 supers an excuse to start WW3. Thats the power he has now. The trick is to work with China and Russia and agree on how and when to slap his ass down.
      China loves their barking foo-foo dog. Russia likes to pet the little runt and watch it bark at US. When it nips them then and only then will they slap it back in to it's cage and turn off the lights.

      Trump haters feel free to twist this up to fit your narrow little mind; and try to score some admiration from ACs and Real Users. Thanks for playing.

    17. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BUT I was told 8 years ago that Foreigner Obama the Muslim was going to start World War III then declare martial law and make himself the president foreverZ. That's the reason they had all those FEMA trailers. They were going to round up white males and send them off to the camps. After that, the Muslim leadership could finally take over the USA with Obamas help.

      ***Everything I just stated above was said to me by friends and was even supplied with links from news outlets parroting the same scare tactics***

      xD funny world we live in ehh?

    18. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow.. You do know how to play the game don't you mister False News.

      Keep up the deity's good work.

    19. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      North Korea is constantly threatening with physical tests using actual missiles.

      According to Western Media sources who obviously are not under the power of the three letter agencies

  7. the deep state wants to invade & exploit N Kor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the corporations can hardly wait to get their hands on all those unexploited peasants

  8. what evidence is based it in? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suspect that this three-letter agency is unreliable to affirm things that could be not true.

    We should wait to the claim of North Korea about the accusation of this three-letter agency.

  9. Don't believe it by campuscodi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Recored Future is disputing WaPo's findings: https://www.recordedfuture.com...
    Furthermore, the US seems to be on a PR campaign to blame NK. Yesterday, FBI&DHS put out a report claiming that big bad NK was building a botnet. They put out 8-year-old IOCs: https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/a...
    Someone's pushing an agenda here...

    1. Re:Don't believe it by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Recall Marble and the language samples? It had Korean. (4/3/2017)
      https://arstechnica.com/securi...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:Don't believe it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The 'agenda' is news media needing something to print.

      - look, studies come & go. Conversations about X and blaming Y happen all the time. ALL the time. But now in the immediate digital news age, if something get's released it is suddenly considered 'real and important'. In the general day-to-day stuff this is 'just another report' and even if factual, is hardly an agenda in itself. I found my wife's secret cookie stash... do I pursue it or is it just a tiny blip on the larger radar screen? I'll do something about it when & only when... I'm not allowed to have cookies myself :P

  10. This dynamic will soon change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dennis Rodman just gave the North Koreans a copy of The Art Of The Deal.

    1. Re:This dynamic will soon change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh how I wish that freak would just stay in North Korea.

    2. Re:This dynamic will soon change by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      And Putin offered asylum to Comey.
      History is repeating itself as farce.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aren't the Lazarus Group supposed to be rather advanced programmers. It seems unlikely they'd make such a rookie error.

  12. Credibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Credibility is something NSA does not have at all.

  13. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And there I was, thinking that maybe Bezos' money would bring back The Washington Post out of trash journalism and regain some credibility.

    How wrong I was.

    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Washington Compost has been the mouthpiece of the CIA since the CIA's founding. It will ALWAYS be trash journalism.

  14. More misinformation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone with access to a major router can send any number of packets with whatever source IP address they like. An IP address means next to nothing unless you can trace the complete route taken ... something that not even the NSA can do.

    In any case, why wouldn't the NSA deploy some virus with deliberately misleading content so that some half-wits might falsely attribute blame to an arch enemy? I mean if I was to write a virus I would make sure I included some residual Russian characters and I would inject via a router using a Russian IP address. Why would anybody do anything different?

    1. Re: More misinformation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually you may even inject a string containing the name of a Russian spy in Cyrillic. As in APT28. Then you can say - it's the Russians, Putin must have been aware, he must know every piece of malware coming out of Russia after all !

  15. You know who else is linked to WannaCry? by zedaroca · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They are, the NSA, they gave away the vulnerability. They didn't warn M$ when they found the vulnerability. They didn't warn M$ as soon as their weapon was stolen.

    Of course there is no reason to believe any official statements made by them, but the least they should do in this case is to shut up.

    1. Re:You know who else is linked to WannaCry? by zedaroca · · Score: 1

      *I realize there was no official statement.

    2. Re: You know who else is linked to WannaCry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are, the NSA, they gave away the vulnerability. They didn't warn M$ when they found the vulnerability. They didn't warn M$ as soon as their weapon was stolen.
      Of course there is no reason to believe any official statements made by them, but the least they should do in this case is to shut up.

      What official statement? What are you taking about?

    3. Re:You know who else is linked to WannaCry? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes they did. Just google "NSA warned Microsoft". I don't understand why this lie keeps being spread.

    4. Re:You know who else is linked to WannaCry? by zedaroca · · Score: 4, Informative

      “NSA identified a risk and communicated it to Microsoft, who put out an immediate patch,” Mike McNerney, a former Defense Department cybersecurity official, told the Post.

      It became public that they were stolen in August, when did they warn Microsoft? The "immediate patch" came in march, 8 months after everybody knowing about it.

  16. I trust the NSA implicitly by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why would a government agency spying on me have a reason to lie?

    1. Re: I trust the NSA implicitly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're not spying on you, just watching over you to ensure you're safe. How ungrateful!

  17. Let me guess... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh wait, is Russia no longer the flavor of the month now that they realize the bogus claims won't stick?

    Guess it's time to shoo up a new boogey man.

  18. Sorry, No Credibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Serial liars.

    We're not going to start believing you're telling the truth now...

  19. North Korea barely even has electricity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This has got to be the most transparent load of horseshit as anything has ever been.

  20. What would expect from Jeff Bezos by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

    Washington Post, whose Amazon inked a deal with the CIA to bring their operations into the cloud. Lots of free press....

  21. BS. Microsoft knew about WannaCry 6 months prior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Bullshit. The patches from Microsoft that fixed WannaCry were completely done and digitally signed several months before they released them, i.e. they had prior knowledge about it, most likely because NSA told them that the patches were going to be needed, and then served up a gag-order or something to the few people at Microsoft required to do this.

  22. so use potcoin and lose your rights by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    dennis rodman is backed by them and now he is in NK doing stuff.

  23. Then it would be a felony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To pay.

  24. FAKE NEWS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >> according to an individual familiar with the report

    is this like saying "anonymous sources familiar with how he thinks"

  25. I don't believe it by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    This sounds a lot like the government saying that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when he did not. This was used to justify a war that maimed an unknown number of men and women mentally and physically. Don't you believe it.

  26. NSA should do fake leaks for stuff like this by trawg · · Score: 1

    If they want people to even pretend to take anything they have to say seriously I feel like their only option is to make a report and fake "leak" it so it feels like we got something out of them that they didn't want. I certainly don't trust this agency to tell me anything and I can't imagine many other technical people do either.

    But if I read it in on the Intercept from a leaked PDF that sends someone to jail I might!

  27. Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    As much as I think North Korea is a cancer on the face of the world, and that Kim Jong Un needs to suffer a tragic and fatal 'accident', I don't trust the CIA, NSA, or any other U.S. intelligence agency as far as I could throw them, so who knows if anything is actually true or not.

    1. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can look to our own Dear Leader for guidance. He is the very definition of trustworthy.

    2. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      I'd trust anyone who could drive at 3, and win yacht races at 9. Or anyone that could write 1,500 books in 3 years while attending University. He truly is history in the making.

      His family is all sorts of incredible. There's pro-golfers that - in their first game - scored 15 points on an 18-hole course. Who wouldn't trust someone like that?

    3. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um.. what sort of weird sarcasm is this?

    4. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you're right not to trust them as far as you could throw their largest building. Anything they do, anything at all, anywhere, anytime, in any fashion, is deliberately designed every single tiniest ant-step of the way to completely screw over everyone involved except their own agency. They will fuck over the US short and long term. They will throw citizens under the bus (not always metaphorically either).

      They will destabilize other countries and even if they remove a hostile power they will ONLY do so in order to install an even more vicious threat in its place - they would never if they could not ensure this.

      If any US three-letter agency except maybe the IRS were to take down Kim Jong Un, you can be 100% certain that it is only done to somehow ruin our country more, at the very least enough to ensure lucrative new "security" contracts and a new draconian measure so they can feel that sexy, hot crunching sound when they're stepping across our necks.

      The NSA is the physical embodiment of Evil.

    5. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even North Koreans would believe the story about Kim Jong Il playing golf. That story was made up, outside of North Korea.

      Other stories might easily be falsified with hyperbole, i.e. let's imagine a text says somewhere "he's never seen attending to bodily functions" in archaic Korean. After going to a South Korean tabloid and then to Western ears this becomes "North Koreans believe Kim Jong Il doesn't poop".
      The former statement would apply to about the entire European nobility yet you don't hear or read in the newspaper that queens and dukes have no use for the toilet.

    6. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The golf story originated in NK.

    7. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay.. I think you're taking things a bit far.. or you're going way over-the-top with the sarcasm.

    8. Re:Not sure I can trust anyone but myself anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you watch 'Good Will Hunting' last night too?

  28. If the NSA said the sky was blue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd go outside and take a look.

    1. Re:If the NSA said the sky was blue by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      And likely find the sky to be black or red, but nearly any color besides blue.

      Granted, I hear NASA is trying to change the color of the sky.

  29. NSA Truthiness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the hell are US citizens *even doing* at this point? You've got an entire organization dedicated solely to increasing its own power - even when opportunities to do so come about by allowing and even encouraging terrorist attacks and co-opting of the electoral process by foreign powers?

    Why haven't those democracy-perverting traitors not been shot for their crimes yet, their families sent for more info at guantanamo and their offices reduced to rubble like some Doctors-Without-Borders facility or Red Cross hospital?

    Is there not a single group of law-enforcement or military in the entire goddamn country that cares about the oaths that they have sworn any longer?

  30. I don't buy it... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    North Korea is so backwatered technology wise. And before you start touting the "bomb", realize the "bomb" is 1950's technology.

    If you can believe, N. Korea only has 28 websites in the entire nation. Then you cannot believe they're capable of everything we conveniently blame on them.
    http://www.npr.org/sections/th...

    1. Re:I don't buy it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those are external websites, there are likely some thousands of sites that are internal.

  31. Fake "Intelligence" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given the releases by the Shadow Brokers, among others, detailing how the NSA has tools that can make malware look like it came from somewhere other than where it actually came from, I don't see any reason why the people confined within this police-state should believe anything our bloated and numerous intelligence agencies say about "links" to anything. It would be better if these idiots were prohibited from using the word "link" in any of their analysis as it has been abused.

    That there are any intelligence agencies left in this country after their numerous failures that have cost this country trillions of dollars is just great evidence of the corruption of our political establishment. As long as the NSA et al continue to exist the people of North America--let alone the rest of the world--will be definitively less free and secure. Abolish them!

  32. Pi contact by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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    tell him Lille referred you tw

  33. I don't trust your comment either. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or pretty much any comment on any geopolitical thing on the internet anymore.

  34. I do! by Picodon · · Score: 1

    They can make nuclear bombs and chemical weapons (among other things) so, regarding military technology, they’re clearly more advanced than many other countries.

    Additionally, if there is something that’s comparatively inexpensive, and does not require procuring tightly-watched materials, it’s cyber-hacking. So it’s clearly the ideal tool for a small nation with limited means, and it’s only logical that they would invest heavily into it. Not only for geopolitical purposes, but even for cash, which they try to get by any means, including criminal operations (well, they probably justify those as “moral” when conducted against the “enemy”).

    Overall, I find it entirely logical and even likely that they would jump on any actionable information released by Wikileaks (and others) and quickly exploit it. They are fascist and poor, but that does not make them dummies.

  35. Not really... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    All of that "bomb" tech is 50-60 years old. Most other countries don't engage in the development of such as it would result in too great of economic loss for them to do so. As most other nations are not like N. Korea, already isolated and out of the international markets.