North Korean hackers ‘could launch devastating cyber attack on February’s Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics’
North Korean hackers could target the Winter Olympics in the South and trigger the worst violence in years, experts have warned.
They claim the high profile Games, taking place in Pyeongchang in February, would be a perfect opportunity for the reclusive state which is widely blamed for the attack which hit 150 countries last year.
The White House has publicly accused North Korea of launching the massive "Wannacry" attack which crippled networks from Britain's NHS system to FedEx.
"After careful investigation the United States is publicly attributing the 'WannaCry' cyber-attack to North Korea," said White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert.
He added: "We do not make this allegation lightly, we do so with evidence and we do so with partners."
Those same hackers could have their virtual cross-hairs set on their enemies in the South, according to Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at US tech company Recorded Future.
The nation, led by Kim Jong-un, may also use the event to hit back at the strict economic sanctions strangling the country, said Patrick Cronin, a senior director at the Centre for a New American Security.
With "guns drawn", he claims such an attack could spark "very serious action... worse than we've seen in the past five years".
The hackers behind the Wannacry attack exploited a security flaw in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system to infect an estimated 300,000 computers, then demanded ransom to decrypt data.
The United States is the latest country to point the finger of blame at Pyongyang, attribution which comes as part of a drive to exert "maximum pressure" on the regime.
Among the infected computers were those at Britain's National Health Service (NHS), Spanish telecoms company Telefonica and US logistics company FedEx.
London had already blamed North Korea, which hit a third of Britain's public hospitals, but Pyongyang then denied the allegation.
It claimed the accusation went "beyond the limit of our tolerance" and was a "wicked attempt to lure the international community into harbouring greater mistrust of the DPRK."
Questions had been raised about whether the US government acted in a timely manner to respond to the attack, with Microsoft accusing Washington of spotting the flaw and using it for its own ends.
"This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem," Microsoft's Brad Smith said at the time.