The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by sattoshi » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:00 AM UTC

mazamats wrote: post #119

mirimir wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 blacklistin…

Just a warning to anyone new to the BTC scene. DO NOT USE BitcoinFog

Why?

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

#122

Post by losteric » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:04 AM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #70

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.

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

They would have earned at least an order of magnitude more if the WannaCry killswitch hadn't been discovered.

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

#123

Post by DaiPlusPlus » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:07 AM UTC

ryanlol wrote: post #64

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?

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

By cash do you mean physical money, like coins and notes, or liquid amounts in a bank account? The problem is physhcal money is not a good way to move large amounts around, and most bank accounts have a great deal of oversight.

No-one cares about $75 being used to buy heroin on The Silk Road, but people will notice $75,000,000 being moved - and Bitcoin is not anonymous either, merely psuedonominous.

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

#124

Post by tyingq » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:10 AM UTC

losteric wrote: post #122

tyingq wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They would have earned at least an order of magnitude more if the WannaCry killswitch hadn't been discovered.

Is ~$10M that interesting to a nation state, even a cash strapped one though? This is almost certainly not about the money.

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

#125

Post by didibus » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:15 AM UTC

1) It saddens me that a nuclear bomb in the hand of a dictator basically means that no one will come help you out. The revolution has to come on the inside. Many dictatorship or empire might still be standing had they had their hand on one.

2) For a country so isolated and brainwashed, how can they train and develop the talent needed for complex hack like that? It seems it would require quite a complete education system. Does NK have a full proper education system?

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

#126

Post by boomboomsubban » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:16 AM UTC

openasocket wrote: post #88

quakeguy wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we are unsure.

Out of curiosity, what evidence would convince you?

Absolute certainty that this would not be used as an excuse to launch military attacks would be a start.

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

#127

Post by mirimir » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:17 AM UTC

cottsak wrote: post #46

openasocket wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that link they only raise doubts about Lazarus being behind WannaCry, not Lazarus being associated with the DPRK. And the Kapersky researchers' quote says that this being a false flag is "possible" but "improbable"

Agreed, confirming that there is no public evidence which hard links Lazarus to DPRK. Just want everyone to know the facts.

People are discounting, I think, the lulz factor in pretending to be working for NK. Just sayin'.

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

#128

Post by mirimir » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:21 AM UTC

openasocket wrote: post #74

cottsak wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, confirming that there is no public evidence which hard links Lazarus to DPRK. Just want everyone to know the facts.

What would a "hard link" be? A signed confession from the head of the DPRK military? Under the circumstances, barring classified intelligence (like the NSA may have), we are as sure as we can be.

Who is "we" here? There are many levels of bullshit between knowledgeable folk at NSA and me. Far too many for me to be sure of anything.

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

#129

Post by rsync » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:27 AM UTC

The only rational response to this is deep, deep skepticism.

In the old days of the USSR, while very difficult, it was at least conceivable that you could just fly to moscow and see if they were eating their children there or burning priests or god knows whatever else.

There was a natural limit to the deception that could occur and further a normal person could make conclusions about the things they saw with their own eyes.

Now, the enemy that "we have always been at war with" is a completely isolated (and economically trivial) state that virtually nobody travels to and who is attacking us with secret cyber weapons that only a domain expert with highly specialized experience could even recognize, much less qualify.

And the people that are telling us are those same people that are, or are not, secretly recording all of our conversations.

There's not one little thing there you could take at face value.

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

#130

Post by 52-6F-62 » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 4:28 AM UTC

meowface wrote: post #75

52-6F-62 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: Sony Hack I heard that the DPRK was definitely involved, but that they involved themselves at a later point in the publicity over the attack, and that it the original attack was initiated by disparate individuals only loosely cooperating. Not to disparage your points on the Lazarus group. I've heard the same about their sophistication. I know next to nothing about the WannaCry attack besides the tragedy of the NH…

Who do you believe conducted the original attack?

Oh I don't know. It's only hearsay. But when it comes to hacks of this scale that initiated with spearfishing, I think a reasonable assumption is bored children... or man-children.