North Korea on Tuesday released a detailed report on the global WannaCry ransomware attack, but kept mum about international suspicions that it might have been behind the destructive hacking.
"The cyberattack, which was carried out via the Internet around May 12, swept through a great number of government agencies and business in some 150 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, around the world," the Rodong Sinmun, an official daily of the North's ruling Workers' Party, reported.
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Employees monitor possible WannaCry ransomware attacks at the Korea Internet and Security Agency in Seoul on May 17, 2017. (Yonhap) |
More than 200,000 computers were crippled worldwide, the paper said, citing the European Police Office.
But the paper did not comment whether the North had suffered the attack.
The paper introduced cases in detail, including the attack on the interior ministry, banks and public agencies in Russia; on information networks, banks and energy-related companies in Spain and Portugal; and on auto factories in France, Slovenia and Romania.
"The international community, shocked by the unprecedentedly destructive cyberattack, is calling for strengthened efforts to fend off crimes exploiting the Internet," the daily said.
The North is internationally suspected of having committed the ransomware attack as it is believed to have associated with Lazarus Group, which is also suspected of hacking into South Korean banks in 2013, Sony Pictures in 2014 and Bangladesh's central bank in February. The North strongly denied all the allegations.
"The North's WannaCry report is intended to stress the attack has nothing to do with it," a source well-versed in the North said.
The ransomware encrypts victims' files in a computer until they pay for decrypting them. (Yonhap)
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