The US and UK governments have said North Korea was responsible for the WannaCry malware attack affecting hospitals, businesses and banks across the world earlier this year.
The attack is said to have hit more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations, causing billions of dollars of damage.
It is the first time the US and UK have officially blamed them for the worm.
Thomas Bossert, an aide to US President Donald Trump, first made the accusation in the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
Mr Bossert, who advises the president on homeland security, said the allegation was “based on evidence”.
He did not produce any evidence in the article, but said US findings concurred with judgments from other governments and private companies.
He added that Australia, Canada, and New Zealand also share the US conclusion that North Korea was behind the attack.
Following the interview, the UK Foreign Office also blamed “North Korean actors using their cyber programme to circumvent sanctions”.
The National Cyber Security Centre assessed that is “highly likely” that the North Korean Lazarus hacking group had committed the attacks, Minister for Cyber Lord Ahmad said in a statement.
In May, Windows computers hit by the cyber-attack had their contents locked, with users asked to a pay a ransom to have their data restored. EU police body Europol called the scale of the attack “unprecedented”.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42407488
