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A comment on The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea. Parent comment

Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by jorblumesea on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @09:54PM (#14557400)
It also makes some practical sense, as NK regime has little in the way of hard foreign currency and bitcoins would be a great source of untraceable unsactionable income. Their previous adventures in illegal activities (counterfeit bills, meth, prostitution and slave labor) show they are not above deviousness to achieve stable income for the Kim state.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by tyingq on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @10:13PM (#14557469)
Not sure ~$150k in Bitcoin is that interesting to the DPRK.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by losteric on Thursday June 15, 2017 @12:04AM (#14557870)
They would have earned at least an order of magnitude more if the WannaCry killswitch hadn't been discovered.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by tyingq on Thursday June 15, 2017 @12:10AM (#14557893)
Is ~$10M that interesting to a nation state, even a cash strapped one though? This is almost certainly not about the money.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by jpatokal on Thursday June 15, 2017 @12:42AM (#14557966)
This is a country whose diplomats sell bootleg liquor and use diplomatic pouches to smuggle crystal meth, so, yes:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11...

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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by gjjrfcbugxbhf on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:15AM (#14558274)
There is a difference between a nation state its officials...
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by captainmuon on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:13AM (#14558269)
Why not? It just has to be more than they invested in this attack.

It's not going to single-handedly pull the country out of recession, but it is probably the best utilisation of those computer-skilled individuals who developed it.

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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by dx034 on Thursday June 15, 2017 @07:09AM (#14559289)
It is. They probably hoped for much more but sanctions by nearly all states in the world mean that North Korea desperately needs FX reserves. For a state where very few people have access to material that US$ can buy, a few hundred k$ can be a lot of money.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by DaiPlusPlus on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @09:55PM (#14557404)
Supposing North Korea has Bitcoins... how could they sell them in a way that grants them usable currency?
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by jorblumesea on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @09:58PM (#14557420)
The same way N. Korea does everything overseas, foreign agents and "diplomats" that act couriers. China would be the obvious conduit as bitcoin is widely accepted there.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by adventured on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @09:59PM (#14557421)
North Korea has the world's #2 and #3 economies next door, and both increasingly like Bitcoin. China has a significant appetite for Bitcoins, even more so with the capital controls now in place. That's a pretty easy black market trade.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by mc32 on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @10:11PM (#14557463)
I'd venture to say #3 has no love lost for N Korea so highly doubt #3 would look kindly at aiding and abetting N Korea. #2 is rather frustrated with the DPRK regime and have tightened commerce with the regime.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by oh_sigh on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @10:13PM (#14557470)
Sell them on one of the Chinese exchanges for yuan and physically carry it over the border to NK.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by openasocket on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @10:18PM (#14557485)
Hell, you don't even need to carry it over: anything you want to use the money to purchase is going to be in China anyway.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by ryanlol on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @10:04PM (#14557441)
It's trivial to exchange Bitcoins anonymously to cash almost anywhere in the world.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by DaiPlusPlus on Thursday June 15, 2017 @12:07AM (#14557882)
By cash do you mean physical money, like coins and notes, or liquid amounts in a bank account? The problem is physhcal money is not a good way to move large amounts around, and most bank accounts have a great deal of oversight.

No-one cares about $75 being used to buy heroin on The Silk Road, but people will notice $75,000,000 being moved - and Bitcoin is not anonymous either, merely psuedonominous.

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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by discordance on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @11:45PM (#14557801)
Not in volumes that count
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by dx034 on Thursday June 15, 2017 @07:10AM (#14559294)
$100k over a few weeks and exchanges shouldn't be too noticeable. Especially if you use personnel from several embassies.
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Re:The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea by ryanlol on Thursday June 15, 2017 @02:09PM (#14562838)
$100k in a single trade would not be noticeable.

I'd go with more like $10M over a few weeks.

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