Experts question N. Korea role in global cyberattack

A couple of things about the WannaCry cyberattack are certain. It was the biggest in history and it’s a scary preview of things to come — we’re all going to have to get used to hearing the word “ransomware.” But one thing is a lot less clear: whether North Korea had anything to do with it.

Despite bits and pieces of evidence that suggest a possible North Korea link, experts warn there is nothing conclusive yet — and a lot of reasons to be dubious. Why, for example, would Pyongyang carry out a big hack that hurt its two closest strategic partners more than anyone else? And for what appears to be a pretty measly amount of loot - as of Friday the grand total of ransom that had been paid was less than $100,000.

North Korea’s deputy

UN ambassador Kim In Ryong dismissed allegations that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the country’s official name — was behind the recent wave of global cyberattacks as “ridiculous.”

Within days of the attack, respected cybersecurity firms Symantec and Kaspersky Labs hinted at a North Korea link. Google researcher Neel Mehta identified coding similarities between WannaCry and malware from 2015 that was tied to the North. And the media have since spun out stories on Pyongyang’s league of hackers, its past involvement in cyberattacks and its perennial search for new revenue streams, legal or shady. WannaCry infected more than 200,000 systems in more than 150 countries with demands for payments of $300 in Bitcoin per victim in exchange for the decryption of the files it had taken hostage.

But that’s not — or at least hasn’t been — the way North Korean hackers are believed to work.

“This is not part of the previously observed behavior of DPRK cyberwar units and hacking groups,” Michael Madden, a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said in an email to The Associated Press. “It would represent an entirely new type of cyberattack by the DPRK.”

◗ Despite bits and pieces of evidence that suggest a possible North Korea link, experts warn there is nothing conclusive yet — and a lot of reasons to be doubt the links