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WannaCry Ransomware Attack Linked to North Korea by Symantec

posted by on Tuesday May 23 2017, @11:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the dear-leader-wrote-it-himself-20-years-ago dept.

takyon writes:

Symantec and FireEye have linked the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks to North Korea:

Cybersecurity researchers at Symantec Corp. and FireEye Inc. have uncovered more evidence tying this month's WannaCry global ransomware attacks to North Korea.

The cyberattack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide was "highly likely" to have originated with Lazarus, a hacking group linked to the reclusive state, Symantec said. The software used was virtually identical to versions employed in attacks earlier this year attributed to the same agency, the company said in a report late Monday. FireEye on Tuesday agreed WannaCry shared unique code with malware previously linked to North Korea. "The shared code likely means that, at a minimum, WannaCry operators share software development resources with North Korean espionage operators," Ben Read, a FireEye analyst, said in an emailed statement.

[...] The initial attack was stifled when a security researcher disabled a key mechanism used by the worm to spread, but experts said the hackers were likely to mount a second attack because so many users of personal computers with Microsoft operating systems couldn't or didn't download a security patch released in March labeled "critical."

Also at NYT, Reuters, Ars Technica, and The Hill. Symantec blog (appears scriptwalled).

Here's a screenshot of Wana Decrypt0r 2.0. Note the Wikipedia licensing section.

Previously: Security In 2017: Ransomware Will Remain King
"Biggest Ransomware Attack in History" Hits Around 100 Countries, Disrupts UK's NHS
WannaCrypt Ransomware Variant -- Lacking Kill Switch -- Seen in Wild [Updated]
Decryption Utility for WannaCry is Released

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by butthurt on Wednesday May 24 2017, @01:09AM (3 children)

    by butthurt (6141) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @01:09AM (#514610) Journal

    Your wish nearly came true:

    In 1951, the U.S. escalated closest to atomic warfare in Korea. Because China deployed new armies to the Sino-Korean frontier, pit crews at the Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, assembled atomic bombs for Korean warfare, "lacking only the essential pit nuclear cores". In October 1951, the United States effected Operation Hudson Harbor to establish a nuclear weapons capability. USAF B-29 bombers practised individual bombing runs from Okinawa to North Korea (using dummy nuclear or conventional bombs), coordinated from Yokota Air Base in east-central Japan. Hudson Harbor tested "actual functioning of all activities which would be involved in an atomic strike, including weapons assembly and testing, leading, ground control of bomb aiming". The bombing run data indicated that atomic bombs would be tactically ineffective against massed infantry, because the "timely identification of large masses of enemy troops was extremely rare."

    Ridgway was authorized to use nuclear weapons if a major air attack originated from outside Korea.

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War [wikipedia.org]

    Conventional bombing had, however, taken a toll on North Korea’s civilian population. In The United States Air Force in Korea 1950 –1953 by historian Robert F. Futrell, he includes a description of the town of Huichon written by General William F. Dean, who was held prisoner in North Korea: “The city I’d seen before—two-storied buildings, a prominent main street—wasn’t there anymore. I think no important bridge between Pyongyang and Kanggye had been missed, and most of the towns were just rubble or snowy open spaces where buildings had been. The little towns, once full of people, were unoccupied shells. The villagers lived in entirely new temporary villages, hidden in canyons or in such positions that only a major bombing effort could reach them.”

    --
      http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/how-korean-war-almost-went-nuclear-180955324/ [airspacemag.com]

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:09PM (2 children)

    by Jeremiah Cornelius (2785) on Wednesday May 24 2017, @04:09PM (#514888) Journal

    Conventional bombing and incendiaries - under the direction of Curtis LeMay - wiped out 20% of the civilian population of the Korean peninsula. This is a war crime, unfortunately not without parallel, but still in the greatest order of magnitude. The USA is no better than Stalin's USSR in this regard, other than ideological justification for the extermination of tens of millions of innocents.

    LeMay, you may note, was responsible for the incineration of the cultural, non-military targets of Dresden and Kyoto. The former made famous by Kurt Vonnegut in "Slaughterhouse 5". LeMay was the great villain of that novel, and portrayed accurately as unrepentant. His airwar was more reprehensible and criminal than Goering's. Yet he never saw a Nuremburg-style prosecution.

    When you see a US or UK flag, the proper response should be abject disgust.

    --
    You're betting on the pantomime horse...