UK, US blame North Korea

Britain yesterday said North Korea was behind the 'WannaCry" cyber attack that infected computers around the globe earlier this year, joining the United States in blaming Pyongyang for the ransomware incident.

Britain's National Cyber Security Centre had assessed it was highly likely that North Korea's Lazarus hacking group was behind the one of the most significant cyber attacks to hit the UK in terms of scale of disruption, the Foreign Office said.

The Trump administration has publicly blamed North Korea for unleashing the attack that crippled hospitals, banks and other companies across the globe earlier this year.

"The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible," Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump, wrote in a piece published on Monday night in the Wall Street Journal.

"North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious," Bossert wrote. "WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless."

The US government has assessed with a "very high level of confidence" that a hacking entity known as Lazarus Group, which works on behalf of the North Korean government, carried out the WannaCry attack, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the government's investigation.

Lazarus Group is widely believed by security researchers and US officials to have been responsible for the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment that destroyed files, leaked corporate communications online and led to the departure of several top studio executives.

The accusation comes as worries mount about North Korea's hacking capabilities and its nuclear weapons program.

Many security researchers, including the cyber firm Symantec , as well as 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.