US Says North Korea 'Directly Responsible' For WannaCry Ransomware Attack (npr.org)

The White House has publicly blamed North Korea for a ransomware attack in May that locked more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries. From a report: In an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Homeland security adviser Tom Bossert writes that after careful investigation, Washington can say that Pyongyang is "directly responsible" for the WannaCry virus. Bossert called the attack in which victims received ransom demands to unlock their computers "cowardly, costly and careless." "The consequences and repercussions of WannaCry were beyond economic," he wrote. "The malicious software hit computers in the U.K.'s health-care sector particularly hard, compromising systems that perform critical work. These disruptions put lives at risk." More details here.

Comments

Kim's securing Bitcoin to subvert embargoes

[rmdingler]

Makes perfect sense, after it was recently reported the fearless leader was accumulating the crypto-currency...

On the other hand, demonizing a political opponent is a sensible Machiavellian move.

Re:An act of war

[Baron_Yam]

From a North Korean perspective, they're still at war but in a ceasefire, surrounded by enemies, and under siege. Given that perspective, this is a perfectly legitimate action and not even particularly provocative.

Now, that perspective comes from a bunch of batshit craziness leading to current circumstances, but with that caveat it's perfectly rational.

Re:I would like to believe that.

[houghi]

We are living in strange times when we call The White House "Not trustworthy".

I think I am going to re-read Snow Crash again, but this time more for the social enviroment.

Re:I would like to believe that.

[AmiMoJo]

Wasn't Wannacry based on stolen NSA exploits?

So are they saying that NK stole US cyber weapons, or did they just buy them on the dark web like anyone else can?