US charges North Korean hacker in connection with Wannacry attacks

Justice Department ties Park Jin Hyok to Wannacry attack, Sony hack, and other cyber crimes

First Assistant US Attorney Tracy Wilkison announces charges against a North Korean national in a range of cyberattacks (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The US Justice Department has charged a North Korean hacker for allegedly aiding in the Wannacry ransomware attacks, the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and numerous other international cyber attacks and break-ins.

Federal officials charged North Korean citizen Park Jin Hyok on Thursday with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The government also announced plans to sanction Mr Park and his alleged employer, the Chosun Expo Joint Venture, as part of a broader move to publicise the identities of alleged perpetrators.

The US alleges Mr Park worked as a computer programmer for Chosun Expo Joint Venture – a wing of the North Korean military. A criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court in June, and unsealed on Thursday, alleges Mr Park and the Joint Venture sought to “conduct multiple destructive cyber attacks around the world” in support of the North Korean government.

The largest of those attacks – the 2017 Wannacry ransomware attack – affected more than 230,000 computers and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages around the world. Among the highest-profile targets was the UK’s National Health System, which was forced to cancel thousands of appointments after its systems were infected.

The Justice Department said on Thursday that the North Korean team both developed the ransomware and propagated the attacks.

Mr Park is also accused of aiding in a 2014 hack into Sony, in which data was destroyed and embarrassing internal documents were released. The attack came shortly after the company produced a comedy film about an attempted assassination on a man made to look like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr Park is also charged in connection with an $81 million (£62 million) theft from a bank in Bangladesh in 2016, and “numerous other attacks or intrusions on the entertainment, financial services, defence, technology, and virtual currency industries, academia, and electric utilities”, according to the Justice Department.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates the FBI’s unceasing commitment to unmasking and stopping the malicious actors and countries behind the world’s cyber attacks,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “We stand with our partners to name the North Korean government as the force behind this destructive global cyber campaign.”

The news came as Stephen Biegun, the newly appointed US special envoy for North Korea ,prepared to make his first diplomatic trip abroad. Mr Biegun will visit South Korea, China and Japan next week, as part of the US’s efforts to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula, the State Department announced on Thursday.

That same morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that Mr Jong-un had proclaimed “unwavering faith in President Trump”.

“Thank you to Chairman Kim,” he wrote. “We will get it done together!”