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The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#31

Post by jeremyt »

tuna-piano wrote: post #20
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15

Though the hackers raised $140,000 in bitcoin, a form of digital currency, so far they have not cashed it in, the analysts said. That is likely because an operational error has made the transactions easy to track, including by law enforcement. As a result, no online currency exchange will touch it, said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. “This is like knowingly taking tainted bills fro…

I don't understand. Isn't the point of bitcoin that it doesn't need a central authority? If Bitcoin has evolved to the point where you need to have currency exchanges that act just like banks... what's the point?

The point is to not to need to convert back to fiat.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#32

Post by threeseed »

iffe_closure wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I take any hacking blame from gov to gov as likely propaganda.

The idea that the US needs to actively spread propaganda about North Korea is pretty ridiculous. You are aware that they have been sending missiles on a regular basis and inviting criticism from pretty much everyone.

Who exactly is pro-North Korea that the US is trying to sway ?

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#33

Post by 52-6F-62 »

tuna-piano wrote: post #20
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15

Though the hackers raised $140,000 in bitcoin, a form of digital currency, so far they have not cashed it in, the analysts said. That is likely because an operational error has made the transactions easy to track, including by law enforcement. As a result, no online currency exchange will touch it, said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. “This is like knowingly taking tainted bills fro…

I don't understand. Isn't the point of bitcoin that it doesn't need a central authority? If Bitcoin has evolved to the point where you need to have currency exchanges that act just like banks... what's the point?

There are dealers and exchanges who abide by regulation in one or more countries, and some that don't.

It's also public record where transactions travel on the blockchain, so if it was ever noted what address the funds entered, I imagine it could prove difficult to dilute the transactions enough that the ledger wouldn't be accepted as proof. But I'm just speculating on that last bit.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#34

Post by pouta »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15

Though the hackers raised $140,000 in bitcoin, a form of digital currency, so far they have not cashed it in, the analysts said. That is likely because an operational error has made the transactions easy to track, including by law enforcement. As a result, no online currency exchange will touch it, said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. “This is like knowingly taking tainted bills fro…

It is quite easy to launder those bitcoins for someone committed to it.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#35

Post by rickycook »

tuna-piano wrote: post #20
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15

Though the hackers raised $140,000 in bitcoin, a form of digital currency, so far they have not cashed it in, the analysts said. That is likely because an operational error has made the transactions easy to track, including by law enforcement. As a result, no online currency exchange will touch it, said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. “This is like knowingly taking tainted bills fro…

I don't understand. Isn't the point of bitcoin that it doesn't need a central authority? If Bitcoin has evolved to the point where you need to have currency exchanges that act just like banks... what's the point?

only to transfer it into another currency

you can trade bitcoin to bitcoin just fine

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#37

Post by zabana »

threeseed wrote: post #32
iffe_closure wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I take any hacking blame from gov to gov as likely propaganda.

The idea that the US needs to actively spread propaganda about North Korea is pretty ridiculous. You are aware that they have been sending missiles on a regular basis and inviting criticism from pretty much everyone. Who exactly is pro-North Korea that the US is trying to sway ?

And what has the US been doing for the last 50 years exactly ? If not dropping missiles and bombs on civilian populations abroad under the pretence of "spreading democracy" and "stopping terrorism"

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#38

Post by cottsak »

openasocket wrote: post #21

OK, so I know this is going to come up in the comments, but this is not remotely a baseless allegation. The Lazarus group (one of the names for the DPRK-associated APT group) is somewhat well known and is quite sophisticated. This is the same group that hacked Sony a few years back. And to preempt people who are going to chime in with "Sony was just some insider leaking data" there is extensive evidence showing it wa…

It's not been fully confirmed/established that Lazarus group == DPRK: see "false flag" from Kaspersky researchers https://www.wired.com/2017/05/wannacry-ransomware-link-suspe...

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#39

Post by artursapek »

tuna-piano wrote: post #20
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15

Though the hackers raised $140,000 in bitcoin, a form of digital currency, so far they have not cashed it in, the analysts said. That is likely because an operational error has made the transactions easy to track, including by law enforcement. As a result, no online currency exchange will touch it, said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm. “This is like knowingly taking tainted bills fro…

I don't understand. Isn't the point of bitcoin that it doesn't need a central authority? If Bitcoin has evolved to the point where you need to have currency exchanges that act just like banks... what's the point?

It is more accurate to say that the point of Bitcoin is everyone has perfect information about how much money everyone has and who they transact with. The hackers are free to send the stolen money to someone else with no central authority to stop them, but an exchange is likely to reject that because they deal with fiat and therefore have to meet certain legal and ethical standards.

The hackers can still spend the money on something else provided the other party doesn't hold themselves to the same standards.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#40

Post by cottsak »

threeseed wrote: post #32
iffe_closure wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I take any hacking blame from gov to gov as likely propaganda.

The idea that the US needs to actively spread propaganda about North Korea is pretty ridiculous. You are aware that they have been sending missiles on a regular basis and inviting criticism from pretty much everyone. Who exactly is pro-North Korea that the US is trying to sway ?

The point may simply be to move the attention away from the NSA, who are perhaps the real authors of WannaCry.
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