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UK Blames North Korea for WannaCry Attacks, Says NHS Didn't Follow Cybersecurity Guidelines

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday October 29 2017, @10:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the security-by-closed-eyes dept.

takyon writes:

UK blames North Korea for WannaCry attacks

The United Kingdom released its final report Friday on the WannaCry ransomware attacks that caused mass disruption in its hospital system, with a U.K. official saying the country believes the attacks originated in North Korea.

"This attack, we believe quite strongly that it came from a foreign state," Ben Wallace, a junior minister for security, told BBC 4 Radio, adding that the government was "as sure as possible" that nation was North Korea.

NHS 'could have prevented' WannaCry ransomware attack

The report said NHS trusts had not acted on critical alerts from NHS Digital and a warning from the Department of Health and the Cabinet Office in 2014 to patch or migrate away from vulnerable older software.

The Department of Health also lacked important information, the report said. "Before 12 May 2017, the department had no formal mechanism for assessing whether NHS organisations had complied with its advice and guidance."

Organisations could also have better managed their computers' firewalls - but in many cases they did not, it said.

NHS organisations have not reported any cases of harm to patients or of their data being stolen as a result of WannaCry.

Also at NPR.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday October 29 2017, @11:18PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Sunday October 29 2017, @11:18PM (#589245) Journal

    Money. It's ransomware. Some people did pay out.

    You are also forgetting that the NHS was far from the only target:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack [wikipedia.org]

    The attack began on Friday, 12 May 2017, and within a day was reported to have infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries. Parts of the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) were infected, causing it to run some services on an emergency-only basis during the attack, Spain's Telefónica, FedEx and Deutsche Bahn were hit, along with many other countries and companies worldwide.

    Affected organizations:

    Andhra Pradesh Police, India[127]
    Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece[128]
    Automobile Dacia, Romania[129]
    Cambrian College, Canada[130]
    Chinese public security bureau[131]
    CJ CGV[132]
    Dalian Maritime University[133]
    Deutsche Bahn[134]
    Dharmais Hospital, Indonesia[135]
    Faculty Hospital, Nitra, Slovakia[136]
    FedEx[137]
    Garena Blade and Soul[138]
    Guilin University Of Aerospace Technology[133]
    Guilin University Of Electronic Technology[133]
    Harapan Kita Hospital[disambiguation needed], Indonesia[135]
    Hezhou University[133]
    Hitachi[139]
    Honda[140]
    Instituto Nacional de Salud, Colombia[141]
    Lakeridge Health[142]
    LAKS[143]
    LATAM Airlines Group[144]
    MegaFon[145]
    Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation[146]
    Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Romania)[147]
    National Health Service (England)[148][92][94]
    NHS Scotland[92][94]
    Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK[148]
    O2, Germany[149][150]
    Petrobrás[151]
    PetroChina[9][131]
    Portugal Telecom[152]
    Pulse FM[153]
    Q-Park[154]
    Renault[155]
    Russian Railways[156]
    Sandvik[135]
    São Paulo Court of Justice[151]
    Saudi Telecom Company[157]
    Sberbank[111]
    Shandong University[133]
    State Governments of India
    Government of Gujarat[158]
    Government of Kerala[158]
    Government of Maharashtra[159]
    Government of West Bengal[158]
    Suzhou Vehicle Administration[133]
    Sun Yat-sen University, China[135]
    Telefónica[160]
    Telenor Hungary, Hungary[161]
    Telkom (South Africa)[162]
    Timrå Municipality, Sweden[163]
    Universitas Jember, Indonesia[164]
    University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy[165]
    University of Montreal, Canada[166]
    Vivo, Brazil[151]
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @08:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 30 2017, @08:15AM (#589369)

    https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/15/wannacry-ransomware-hackers-have-only-made-50000-worth-of-bitcoin.html [cnbc.com]
    https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/wannacry-ransom-total/ [thesslstore.com]

    You really believe the North Koreans wrote Wannacry which has such an easy killswitch in the code? When North Koreans screw up it's not just them who get executed. Their families get executed or imprisoned too. All to make less than USD100,000 for the North Korean Government in traceable Bitcoin?

    Just because some code matches doesn't mean much.

    Quote the NY Times:

    Those clues alone are not definitive, however. Hackers often borrow and retrofit one another’s attack methods, and government agencies are known to plant “false flags” in their code to throw off forensic investigators.

    Now if you can link the "Patient Zero"(s) to North Korea then I'll put more weight on the NK accusations. Till then you've really got nothing except hearsay and propaganda.