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The investigation is being led by the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). A parallel US investigation being conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) said investigators had "moderate confidence" that the attack originated in North Korea.
Although spokespeople for the NCSC told ITV journalists they could not confirm or deny their findings at this stage, private sector cyber specialists were more forthcoming with their conclusions.
Adrian Nish, the head of BAE Systems's cyber threat intelligence team, said there are "overlaps" between the codes used to attack the NHS and earlier attacks by Lazarus. "It seems to tie back to the same code-base and the same authors. The code-overlaps are significant."
Comment: After the revelations from both Edward Snowden and the Wikileaks Vault7 releases, there is NO possibility that there can be an unbiased determination about who launched this or any other cyber attack. Clearly the CIA and its ilk have the capability to both launch sophisticated attacks and make them point to whichever state player they want to vilify on a given day.
He compared the NHS attack to one on a Bangladeshi bank in 2016, in which the hackers extorted $81 million. The cash was then laundered through casinos in the Philippines. "It was one of the biggest bank heists of all time in physical space or in cyberspace," Nish said, adding that similar activity had been seen at banks in Poland and Mexico. The WannaCry software used in the attack penetrates and locks computer systems and demands a ransom in exchange for returning control to the owners.
Comment: See also: Hospitals across England reportedly hit with large-scale cyberattack