North Korea behind WannaCry cyber-attack in which crippled NHS

Yui Mok | PA Images | Getty Images A patient appointment letter coming from a London NHS hospital, next to a virus as well as also spyware warning message on a laptop screen at a home in London, following a major cyber attack on NHS computer systems.

North Korea was behind a cyber-attack in which derailed Britain’s state-owned health service’s the idea systems, the U.K. government said Friday.

“I think we should perhaps remember in which This specific attack, we believe quite strongly, in which This specific came coming from a foreign state,” U.K. Security Minister Ben Wallace said.

Asked which foreign state he believed was involved, Wallace said: “North Korea was the state we believe was involved in This specific worldwide attack on our systems.”

Malicious software called “WannaCry” targeted quite a few businesses, government entities as well as also the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) earlier This specific year. A form of “ransomware”, the software blocked access to a user’s computer until a sum of money was paid to the attacker.

Asked how sure he was in which North Korea was the actor behind the cyber-attack, Wallace said: “We can be sure as possible. I can’t obviously go into the detail of intelligence, however the idea can be widely believed from the (intelligence) community as well as also across quite a few countries in which North Korea had taken This specific role.”

Wallace called on Western nations to develop a “doctrine of deterrent,” similar to nuclear deterrent strategy, to prevent further cyber-attacks.

“On a weekly basis, our systems are under attack coming from serious organized criminals using malware coming from abroad or even at home,” he said.