About six months ago, computers all across the world were impacted by the WannaCry ransomware attacks. Recently in an interview with ITV News, Microsoft President Brad Smith talked more about the impact of WannaCry, specifically saying the company believed “with great confidence” that North Korea was behind the attacks (via Washington Examiner.)
Although North Korea was widely believed to be a part of the cyber attacks, this is the first time that someone at Microsoft has come out and blamed the rogue nuclear nation for WannaCry. Smith remarked that North Korea is “one of the most problematic” state-sponsored hackers, while also going into details about what Microsoft observed about the attacks.
“I think at this point that all observers in the know have concluded that WannaCry was caused by North Korea using cyber tools or weapons that were stolen from the National Security Agency in the United States.”
Brad Smith went into details about the increased frequency of cyber attacks, and the need for the Digital Geneva Convention. According to Smith, such a convention would make it against international law to target civilians with cyber attacks in a time of peace. At one point, he even talks about Microsoft’s obligation to help customers get secure, saying “we look for ways to provide patches to everybody… but at the same time we virtually plead with people, please don’t rely on software that now belongs in a museum.”
