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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

#61

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#62

Post by mc32 »

1001101 wrote: post #54
claytonjy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't think this is the case here, specifically, propaganda isn't always about swaying people from anti- to pro-; it could be for swaying people from "they are bad, but not that dangerous" to "they are dangerous enough that we should intervene with force"

Right. Watching the Noam Chomsky documentary, Manufacturing Consent, on YouTube really opened my eyes to this phenomena. Based on what I have observed recently, I think the decision was made some time ago on this, and we're being told what to think.

It's good to be skeptical but I think when you have preponderance of evidence in one way, it's not unreasonable to reach a conclusion. Remember Noam was the same guy who for political reasons did not want to believe Pol Pot was mowing through millions despite large amounts of information filtering out of the country corroborating the atrocities others claimed were taking place.

Additionally, there is no need to "manufacture consent" as only a very small minority would object to any action against N Korea at this point in time.

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

#63

Post by fiblye »

threeseed wrote: post #45
cottsak wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So the logic conclusion for you is not that North Korea did this who has no foreign currency and minimal income. But rather it was the NSA who is bankrolled by the US government and who will be receiving additional funds in the upcoming budget process. Makes complete sense.

One of those groups has the funding and experience to create malware that finds its way into 150000 computers. This group already monitors billions of other devices.

The other is an isolated nation that's decades behind on technology, only recently building weapons that can compete on a global scale, and struggles to feed its starving population.

It wouldn't be the first or even hundredth time that the US gov did something shady and pinned it on an enemy. It's less about the money and more about justifying their expanding powers.

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

#64

Post by ryanlol »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #52
jorblumesea wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also makes some practical sense, as NK regime has little in the way of hard foreign currency and bitcoins would be a great source of untraceable unsactionable income. Their previous adventures in illegal activities (counterfeit bills, meth, prostitution and slave labor) show they are not above deviousness to achieve stable income for the Kim state.

Supposing North Korea has Bitcoins... how could they sell them in a way that grants them usable currency?

It's trivial to exchange Bitcoins anonymously to cash almost anywhere in the world.

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

#65

Post by yongjik »

threeseed wrote: post #48
claytonjy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't think this is the case here, specifically, propaganda isn't always about swaying people from anti- to pro-; it could be for swaying people from "they are bad, but not that dangerous" to "they are dangerous enough that we should intervene with force"

So it's not North Korea testing ballistic missiles capable of destroying Tokyo, Seoul, Hawaii etc. Or the fact that they are actively developing nuclear weapons capable of hitting anywhere in the US. No it's not billions of lives that are the impetus to use force. Rather it's the huge sum of a few million dollars worth of Bitcoins i.e the cost of one of their more expensive bombs.

US, Russia, and China have ballistic missiles capable of destroying all the cities you mentioned and some more. And what are you going to do about them?

All this talk of "North Korea may have missiles that can hit us!" is getting tiresome and, frankly, worrisome. The only reason people talk about North Korea and, say, not Russia is that the US can preemptively attack North Korea and they can do nothing about it.

Everywhere you live, your place can be incinerated in 30 minutes if one or another national leader decides to push the red button. And it has been like that for ~50 years. Deal with it, and if anybody feels extra warlike and feels like they have to invade yet another country to save the civilized world from WMDs, remember Iraq.

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

#66

Post by mirimir »

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…

Mixing $140,000 in Bitcoin would be trivial.

For example, bitmixer.io holds ~1000 BTC reserve for mixing, which is currently worth ~$2.5 million. So ~60 BTC could be safely mixed over a few days.

Decent mixers:

bitmixer.io (bitmixer2whesjgj.onion)

Bitcoin Fog (foggedddxlunnaaa.onion)

Helix (grams7enufi7jmdl.onion/helix/light)

I'm not aware that exchanges have blacklisted any mixers. There has been talk of blacklisting stolen Bitcoin, but I don't believe that's been done either.

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

#67

Post by ryanlol »

hellbanner wrote: post #23
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…

Who's blacklisting these bitcoins? Is that public or is Rendition speculating?

It's bullshit. Such measures do not exist at any significant scale.

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

#68

Post by mc32 »

adventured wrote: post #59
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supposing North Korea has Bitcoins... how could they sell them in a way that grants them usable currency?

North Korea has the world's #2 and #3 economies next door, and both increasingly like Bitcoin. China has a significant appetite for Bitcoins, even more so with the capital controls now in place. That's a pretty easy black market trade.

I'd venture to say #3 has no love lost for N Korea so highly doubt #3 would look kindly at aiding and abetting N Korea. #2 is rather frustrated with the DPRK regime and have tightened commerce with the regime.

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

#69

Post by jszymborski »

openasocket wrote: post #47
jszymborski wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, at least find another whipping boy... this DPRK attribution is getting old hat

I assume you're referring to the Sony hacks? The evidence is pretty damning: https://www.operationblockbuster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016... which I linked elsewhere. Any aspect of that report you want to contest?

I'm liable to believe The Grugq, Marc Rogers and Peter Singer [0].

I've never heard of novetta before, and have no particular reason to doubt them, but I will say that this looks more like promotional material than anything else.

[0] http://gawker.com/a-lot-of-smart-people-think-north-korea-di...

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

#70

Post by tyingq »

jorblumesea wrote: post #51
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 also makes some practical sense, as NK regime has little in the way of hard foreign currency and bitcoins would be a great source of untraceable unsactionable income. Their previous adventures in illegal activities (counterfeit bills, meth, prostitution and slave labor) show they are not above deviousness to achieve stable income for the Kim state.

Not sure ~$150k in Bitcoin is that interesting to the DPRK.
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