US intelligence sees North Korea behind cyberattack

According to the newspaper, codes used by hackers coincide with those of North Korean cyber attacks in the past

Officials of the intelligence of the United States and experts linked to the private sector suspect that North Korean hackers were behind the cyberattack world released last Friday and that affected about 300,000 computers, according to information published by the newspaper The New York Times .

According to the publication, some of the codes used in ransomware WannaCry coincide with those used in North Korean cyber attacks in the past, such as the year 2014 at Sony, although this is not a definitive proof of Pyongyang’s involvement as pirates Could be copying this method.

Californian computer security firm Symantec has identified in a version of WannaCry the code of attacks on Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016 on banks in Poland earlier this year and Sony Pictures Entertainment in retaliation for the film The Interview , A satire by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Symantec has in the past detected the source of attacks in the United States, North Korea and Israel. US intelligence officials have the same clues as Symantec, and researchers from both Google and Russian company Kaspersky have confirmed the similarities of the code. However, everyone claims that the clues are not definitive.

Ransomware WannaCry leverages a vulnerability in Microsoft’s operating system detected by the US National Security Agency (NSA), details of which were stolen in April and aired by hackers.

Those responsible for the attack demanded a payment in the Bitcoin digital currency to regain access to computers and affected at least 150 countries, harming hospitals in the UK, large companies in France and Spain, the rail network in Germany, public agencies in Russia and universities in China.