<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;" align="center">As countries across the world are still scrambling to apprehend the massive WannaCry &ldquo;ransomware&rdquo; cyber-attack, security researchers have discovered some clues about who may be behind the recent cyber warfare.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Researchers have found some leads linking North Korea to the &ldquo;ransomware&rdquo; attack, that infected over 300,000 computers in 150 countries earlier in the month.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;The crux of the allegations against North Korea is its connection to a hacking group called Lazarus that is linked to last year&#8217;s $81 million cyber heist at the Bangladesh central bank and the 2014 attack on Sony&#8217;s Hollywood studio,&rdquo; writes <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters</em>. &ldquo;The U.S. government has blamed North Korea for the Sony hack and some U.S. officials have said prosecutors are building a case against Pyongyang in the Bangladesh Bank theft.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So far, no criminal charges have been filed regarding North Korea&rsquo;s involvement in the Sony and banking attacks. The country has denied being behind them, along with the most recent WannaCry outbreak. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, experts have found some clues from sources inside North Korea.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kim Heung-kwang, who previously was a computer science professor in North Korea before relocating to the South in 2004, has sources placing the blame for the Pyongyang&rsquo;s cyber-attacks on a special known as Unit 180, a part of the country&rsquo;s intelligence agency, Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;Unit 180 is engaged in hacking financial institutions (by) breaching and withdrawing money out of bank accounts,&#8221; said Kim to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters.</em> &#8220;The hackers go overseas to find somewhere with better internet services than North Korea so as not to leave a trace.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The former professor also said the country has a cyber army, where some of his past students now work.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unit 180 is just one of the many elite cyber warfare groups in the country working for the intelligence community.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;The personnel are recruited from senior middle schools and receive advanced training at some elite training institutions,&#8221; said Michael Madden, a U.S.-based expert on the North Korean leadership, to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters.</em> &#8220;They have a certain amount of autonomy in their missions and tasking as well/&#8221; ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The North Korea expert, James Lewis said the hacking was originally used for espionage, but quickly morphed to support criminal activities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;They changed after Sony by using hacking to support criminal activities to generate hard currency for the regime,&#8221; said Lewis. &#8220;So far, it&#8217;s worked as well or better as drugs, counterfeiting, smuggling &ndash; all their usual tricks.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">South Korean officials have also said that the country is good at covering up their tracks.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;North Korea is carrying out cyber-attacks through third countries to cover up the origin of the attacks and using their information and communication technology infrastructure,&#8221; said Ahn Chong-ghee, South Korea&#8217;s vice foreign minister to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reuters.</em>  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although technical evidence has not been found linking North Korea to the &ldquo;ransomware&rdquo; attack, they have the capabilities to be responsible for this month&rsquo;s cyberwarfare.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;Their capabilities have improved steadily over time, and we consider them to be a threat actor that is capable of inflicting significant damage on U.S. private or government networks,&rdquo; said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of the U.S. security firm CrowdStrike Inc.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Author&rsquo;s note:</strong> With all of this being said, nuclear warheads aren&rsquo;t the only thing we should fear from North Korea. Cyber warfare could be equally as dangerous, especially since the country is so hostile.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> Unfortunately cyber crime is an area where one can gain a great deal of expertise very quickly.  ;It is relatively easy to hire underground experts to teach this craft.  ;I suspect North Korea is very good at identifying talent in their population to use for this endeavvor. In short, if they want to be a player on the world stage, this may be a good bet.</p>
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