The United States Holds North Korea Responsible for the Widespread Ransomware Attack 'WannaCry'

The U.S. government has officially accused North Korea of being involved in the widespread ransomware attack 'WannaCry' that targeted companies, banks, offices, hospitals, and other public and governmental entities around the world. Tom Bossert, an advisor on homeland security to President Donald Trump, made this accusation in an article published on December 18 in the Wall Street Journal. Bossert wrote, 'This was a widespread attack that left billions of dollars in damages; North Korea was directly involved.' He stated, 'North Korea has engaged in clearly malicious activities for over a decade, and its destructive behavior has taken on a more disastrous trend.' According to this advisor to the U.S. President, the Trump administration has pursued 'the most pressure possible to prevent attacks from Pyongyang, whether cyberattacks or other activities.' North Korea had previously denied involvement in the widespread release of the 'WannaCry' ransomware. The ransomware was first observed in Ukraine and appeared to primarily target computers running outdated Microsoft versions. Microsoft also provided patches to help prevent the spread of this ransomware. The 'WannaCry' ransomware targeted various organizations, institutions, and entities from hospitals, banks, shops to schools and government offices, reportedly seeking ransom from users whose computers were infected. In late May, shortly after the release of 'WannaCry', European police announced that tens of thousands of users in hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide had fallen victim to the ransomware attack. Last July, Ukraine declared this cyberattack to be 'the worst of its kind' in its history. In mid-July, Iran's police reported the infection of hundreds of computers in governmental organizations and private companies. Currently, it is said that this ransomware initially attacked over 300,000 computers in 150 countries. Reuters reported, citing an unnamed government official, that the United States 'is very confident' that hackers known as the 'Lazarus Group', which is supported by the North Korean government, were behind this ransomware. U.S. officials believe that the 'Lazarus Group' is the same group that led the cyberattacks on Sony Pictures in 2014. At that time, the United States had officially stated that the North Korean government was behind the internet attacks on Sony Pictures and the hacking of its documents and emails. North Korea denied this accusation.