North Korea 'highly likely' to be behind cyberattack

A US cybersecurity firm says hackers affiliated with North Korea were highly likely to be behind the ransomware attacks that have affected computers around the world.

Symantec released on Monday findings from its investigation into the malware that the US government says has infected more than 300,000 devices in around 150 countries.

The new virus, called WannaCry, encrypts all files on a computer and demands 300 dollars in bitcoins to decrypt them.

Symantec researchers say they have found multiple similarities between the malware used in this attack and in a previous one believed to have been carried out by a group of North Korean hackers known as Lazarus.

They say the same IP addresses were used in both attacks.

The US government determined that the group was involved in the 2014 cyberattack on a subsidiary of Sony in the United States. It also suspects that Lazarus stole large sums of money last year in an attack on Bangladesh’s central bank.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating these cases.