Is North Korea behind latest ransomware attack?

From the reports I have heard, it seems likely. I wonder why they can’t just follow the money? There should be a way similar to “Marked Bills” to do that.

That would be convenient for the narrative, would it not?

^^ my thoughts exactly^^

Although rumors are floating ‘round that the actual methods (and possibly code) were stolen from the NSA

So, our own weapons used against us. Kind of like how most of the weapons used by ISIS and the Taliban are actually supplied by the US.

I don’t know. But I do wonder why hasn’t the bit coin system been shut down. It’s only a way for dirty money to travel.

I suspect if it was North Korea, they were not in it alone.

@imrainmaker It will be fascinating to learn the origin of the hacking/ransomware. Were tools stolen from NSA?

@rojo Microsoft has confirmed that the vulnerability used was one known to the NSA (but not reported to Microsoft).

@Pandora Bitcoins can’t really be shut down, but also, there is nothing inherent to it why it cannot be used for regular/good transactions, and in fact it has been.

As for the actual question, there’s no way to tell. Another possible explanation is that whatever North Korea was working on has leaked, and the attackers took that and built upon it. I would imagine NK to use this attack for something other than extorting money though.

^^ Or did the NSA orchestrate it in order to:
A. Blame NK
B. Show the need for regulation of the Internet by elimination of Net Neutrality laws.
C. Distract from Trumps self-imposed trouble.
D. Test their capabilities.
E. Any combination of the above.

@rojo All of the above.

If I knew that, I would be qualified to work for NSA, and so I could not discuss it.

@Patty_Melt
Unless you were Drumpf, then you would blurt it out anyway.