The Trump administration has come out and publicly laid the blame for the recent “WannaCry” cyber attack that crippled hospitals, banks, companies and other infrastructure on North Korea.
“The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible,” Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump, wrote in a piece published on Monday night in The Wall Street Journal.
“North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious,” Bossert wrote. “WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless.”
A senior administration official said the White House would likely follow up with a stronger, more formal statement today blaming Pyongyang.
The U.S. government has assessed with a “very high level of confidence” that a hacking entity known as Lazarus Group, which works on behalf of the North Korean government, carried out the WannaCry attack.
The same group is believed to be responsible for the 2014 Sony hack.
Others including the cyber firm Symantec , as well as the British government, had already concluded that North Korea was behind the WannaCry attack, which infected some 300,000 computers in 150 countries.
The attack knocked several British hospitals completely offline.
Publicly naming North Korea is designed to undermine future efforts to launch cyberattacks against the U.S., government officials said. [source]
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