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No. There is independent analysis pointing at a group called 'Lazarus' which is believed to be linked to North Korea. So, it's either a North Korean group, or

No. There is independent analysis pointing at a group called 'Lazarus' which is believed to be linked to North Korea. So, it's either a North Korean group, or a group shielding their identities pretending to be North Korean. Given the lack of publicly available evidence linking the group to NK, and the sophistication of the majority of the things attributed to them, I personally have a very difficult time believing that NK would be capable of these things.. as this would mean extremely talented computer skills, which to develop would require unfettered access to the entire internet for extremely long periods of time, knowledge of several languages, and a host of skill sets that are not usually you'd associate with living in an oppressive regime that can barely keep the power on. I'm going to go with Occam's razor on this one because it's far more likely that it's easier to pretend to be from NK than for NK to do what they are being accused of.

LV-426 9y ago
> it's far more likely that it's easier to pretend to be from NK than for NK to do what they are being accused of For all the hot air about "analysis" and "evidence" and crimes NK committed when Kim was a baby five presidents ago, it's extremely easy to know North Korea wasn't responsible for this: Because the idea that any nation state could function in any capacity while simultaneously being so broke that a puny act of organized crime involving Bitcoins could make any difference is utterly beyond the realm of absurdity. Nobody with even moderate critical faculties can seriously believe such a ridiculous premise, and the only thing anyone does by arguing it, sincerely or otherwise, is reduce their own credibility.
- bane 9y ago
  It's so bad for North Korea that they operate series of restaurants for the sole purpose of bringing exportable cash back to the country. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/08/the-weird-world-of-north-koreas-overseas-restaurants/?utm_term=.366f89fcf69b https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/08... It's so bad for North Korea that they "sell" large groups of laborers to friendly countries to work in remote areas for the sole purpose of bringing exportable cash back to the country. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwnw3w/north-korean-labor-camps-part-1 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwnw3w/north-korean-labor... It's so bad for North Korea that for many years they operated a factory town on the border with their active enemy South Korea that used low payed North Korean workers to make goods to sell back to South Korea, under South Korean management for the sole purpose of bringing cash into the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region The list goes on. The GDP of North Korea is estimated to be about $30 billion with the per capita income being around $1,000 per person. North Korea is deeply cash strapped, has few trading partners, and produces very little that anybody would want anyways. It doesn't take much money to move the needle. To not be aware of this is to not posses even remotely moderate critical faculties.
  - madshiva 9y ago
    It's so bad that U.S need to pretend that there's evil weapon to get the petrol of Irak and make 10 years of war there. So Bad, but really true. Not like your propaganda U.S from washington post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destr...
  - LV-426 9y ago
    > The list goes on. The list of what? Different ways in which the North Korean economy legitimately functions? However "weird" you or the Washington Post think running a restaurant and remitting money back home is (or are they fronts for money laundering? the story can't seem to decide), or a country sending its workers abroad (look up the population of the UAE sometime), or operating a factory (?), all of those things are legitimate, legal and commonplace around the world, and in no way analogous to a Bitcoin ransomware attempt. > The GDP of North Korea is estimated to be about $30 billion [...] It doesn't take much money to move the needle. The amount made by WannaCry wouldn't even move the needle in the Bitcoin economy, never mind the economy of a nation state. Hell it wouldn't move the needle for some posters to HN. If North Korea was that interested in acquiring cryptocurrency they could make far more simply running darknet markets or Bitcoin exchanges. But - no - according to some people it makes far more sense to enact a convoluted and easily killswitched extortion scam with flashing neon arrows pointing straight back at them. SMH
willstrafach 9y ago
> publicly available evidence What are some examples of what you would consider evidence?
- rando444 9y ago
  Honestly, I'd be willing to consider anything.. but I've seen nothing so far. The only evidence available right now is code reuse tying similar attacks together, and since people aren't willing to assume that the Sony attack could have been anyone other than North Korea, the rest of these attacks and electronic bank heists 'must be them too'. Call me skeptical, but this is too large of a pill for me to swallow at face value. We're talking about a country that is purchasing refrigerators but hasn't figured out how to reliably power them yet. [0] [0] https://qz.com/95219/north-koreas-new-rich-love-buying-refrigerators-but-not-for-what-youd-think/ https://qz.com/95219/north-koreas-new-rich-love-buying-refri...

LV-426 9y ago

> it's far more likely that it's easier to pretend to be from NK than for NK to do what they are being accused of For all the hot air about "analysis" and "evidence" and crimes NK committed when Kim was a baby five presidents ago, it's extremely easy to know North Korea wasn't responsible for this: Because the idea that any nation state could function in any capacity while simultaneously being so broke that a puny act of organized crime involving Bitcoins could make any difference is utterly beyond the realm of absurdity. Nobody with even moderate critical faculties can seriously believe such a ridiculous premise, and the only thing anyone does by arguing it, sincerely or otherwise, is reduce their own credibility.

bane 9y ago
It's so bad for North Korea that they operate series of restaurants for the sole purpose of bringing exportable cash back to the country. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/08/the-weird-world-of-north-koreas-overseas-restaurants/?utm_term=.366f89fcf69b https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/04/08... It's so bad for North Korea that they "sell" large groups of laborers to friendly countries to work in remote areas for the sole purpose of bringing exportable cash back to the country. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwnw3w/north-korean-labor-camps-part-1 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwnw3w/north-korean-labor... It's so bad for North Korea that for many years they operated a factory town on the border with their active enemy South Korea that used low payed North Korean workers to make goods to sell back to South Korea, under South Korean management for the sole purpose of bringing cash into the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region The list goes on. The GDP of North Korea is estimated to be about $30 billion with the per capita income being around $1,000 per person. North Korea is deeply cash strapped, has few trading partners, and produces very little that anybody would want anyways. It doesn't take much money to move the needle. To not be aware of this is to not posses even remotely moderate critical faculties.
- madshiva 9y ago
  It's so bad that U.S need to pretend that there's evil weapon to get the petrol of Irak and make 10 years of war there. So Bad, but really true. Not like your propaganda U.S from washington post. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destr...
- LV-426 9y ago
  > The list goes on. The list of what? Different ways in which the North Korean economy legitimately functions? However "weird" you or the Washington Post think running a restaurant and remitting money back home is (or are they fronts for money laundering? the story can't seem to decide), or a country sending its workers abroad (look up the population of the UAE sometime), or operating a factory (?), all of those things are legitimate, legal and commonplace around the world, and in no way analogous to a Bitcoin ransomware attempt. > The GDP of North Korea is estimated to be about $30 billion [...] It doesn't take much money to move the needle. The amount made by WannaCry wouldn't even move the needle in the Bitcoin economy, never mind the economy of a nation state. Hell it wouldn't move the needle for some posters to HN. If North Korea was that interested in acquiring cryptocurrency they could make far more simply running darknet markets or Bitcoin exchanges. But - no - according to some people it makes far more sense to enact a convoluted and easily killswitched extortion scam with flashing neon arrows pointing straight back at them. SMH

willstrafach 9y ago

> publicly available evidence What are some examples of what you would consider evidence?

rando444 9y ago
Honestly, I'd be willing to consider anything.. but I've seen nothing so far. The only evidence available right now is code reuse tying similar attacks together, and since people aren't willing to assume that the Sony attack could have been anyone other than North Korea, the rest of these attacks and electronic bank heists 'must be them too'. Call me skeptical, but this is too large of a pill for me to swallow at face value. We're talking about a country that is purchasing refrigerators but hasn't figured out how to reliably power them yet. [0] [0] https://qz.com/95219/north-koreas-new-rich-love-buying-refrigerators-but-not-for-what-youd-think/ https://qz.com/95219/north-koreas-new-rich-love-buying-refri...