WannaCry was one of the fastest-spreading and damaging cyber attacks to-date, affecting at least 300,000 computers across 150 countries.
The US administration has said North Korea was “directly responsible” for the WannaCry malware attack affecting hospitals, businesses and banks across the world earlier this year.
The WannaCry attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible,” Thomas P. Bossert, Trump’s homeland security adviser, said in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
North Korean government representatives could not be immediately reached for comment. The country has repeatedly denied responsibility for WannaCry and called other allegations about cyber attacks a smear campaign.
The UK government said in November that it was “all but certain” that North Korea carried out the attack.In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) was hit particularly hard by the cyber-attack, with 48 affected health trusts forced to turn many patients away for appointments and even surgeries.
The British government, have already concluded that North Korea was likely behind the WannaCry attack, which quickly unfurled across the globe in May to infect more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries.
North Korea was widely suspected to have created the virus, paired with ransomware that encrypted data on victims’ computers and demanded money to restore access.
