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(LEAD) U.S. blames N. Korea for massive cyberattack in May

All News 01:31 December 20, 2017

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more details)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- The United States on Tuesday accused North Korea of conducting a major cyberattack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers across the world in May.

The attack used the WannaCry ransomware and hit hospitals in Britain, reportedly disrupting the health care system there.

"After careful investigation, the United States is publicly attributing the massive WannaCry cyberattack to North Korea," Thomas Bossert, assistant to President Donald Trump for homeland security and counterterrorism, said at a briefing at the White House. "We do not make this allegation lightly. We do so with evidence and we do so with partners."

The announcement came hours after Bossert leveled the charge in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal late Monday.

In the piece titled "It's Official: North Korea is Behind WannaCry," Bossert slammed the attack as "cowardly, costly and careless." Citing the attack on Britain, he said, "These disruptions put lives at risk."

Britain has already put the blame on the communist regime.

On Tuesday, Bossert said Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan also agreed with the U.S. conclusion and joined it in denouncing North Korea for the attack. He lauded "corporate partners," including Microsoft and Facebook, for acting on their own initiative to disrupt the activity of North Korean hackers.

"We don't have a lot of room left here to apply pressure to change their behavior," the adviser said, arguing that Trump has used "just about every lever" short of starving the North Korean people to force the regime to change its belligerent course.

Still, he said it is important to call them out and let them know they are responsible.

"I think at this point, some of the benefit that comes from this attribution is letting them know we're going to move to stop their behavior," he added.

While ransomware is often used to raise money, that did not seem to be North Korea's main goal.

"It's interesting. We don't really know how much money they raised, but they didn't seem to architect it in a way that a smart ransomware attacker would do so," Bossert said.

Victims were required to pay ransom money to unlock their computers, but once it became known that didn't work, the payments stopped.

"I think in this case, this was a reckless attack. I think it was meant to cause havoc and destruction," Bossert said. "The money was an ancillary side benefit. I don't think they got a lot of it."

North Korea is known to exploit various illicit channels to fund their nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Tensions have run high in the wake of Pyongyang's sixth nuclear test in September and its recent launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting anywhere in the U.S.

hague@yna.co.kr
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