BRIEFLY
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
U.S. short of options
to punish NKorea for
serious cyberattack
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Trump administration vowed
Tuesday that North Korea would
be held accountable for a May
cyberattack that affected 150
countries, but it didn’t say how,
highlighting the difficulty of
punishing a pariah nation already
sanctioned to the hilt for its nuclear
weapons program.
The WannaCry ransomware
attack infected hundreds of
thousands of computers worldwide
and crippled parts of Britain’s
National Health Service. It was the
highest-profile cyberattack North
Korea has been blamed for since
the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures
after it produced “The Interview,”
a satirical movie imagining a CIA
plot to kill leader Kim Jong Un.
While that attack led to leaks of
confidential data from the movie
studio and emails that embarrassed
Sony talent, the implications of
the WannaCry intrusion were
altogether more serious. Homeland
security adviser Tom Bossert said
it was “a reckless attack and it
was meant to cause havoc and
destruction.” He said it put lives at
risk in British hospitals.
Other experts say the attack
was more likely an attempt by
Kim’s cash-strapped government
to extract money. Last year, the
same hacking group was suspected
in a malware attack that penetrated
the Bangladesh Central Bank’s
computer system, stealing $81
million.
Whatever the motivation, the
public declaration of blame by
Washington reflects growing
concern over North Korea’s cyber
capabilities that appear all the more
threatening because of Pyongyang’s
scant regard for international
norms. In defiance of world
opinion, North Korea is the only
country to test nuclear weapons
this century and is closing in on a
missile that could strike anywhere
on U.S. mainland.
FBI involved with
airport blackout probe;
no sign of terror
ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI is
part of the probe into what caused
a fire that knocked out power
to the world’s busiest airport in
East Oregonian
Atlanta, but an agency spokesman
said Tuesday there was no sign of
anything connected to terrorism.
“There’s no indication at this
point of anything nefarious,” FBI
spokesman Kevin Rowson said.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
has also been involved in the
investigation, Georgia Power
spokesman Craig Bell said.
“We’re bringing everything we
have to bear to the situation to make
sure this doesn’t happen again,”
Bell said Tuesday.
No conclusions have been drawn
as to the cause of the fire, which
took out the airport’s power supply
and also its backup electricity
for about 11 hours Sunday. The
blackout stranded thousands of
passengers on grounded jets and
in darkened concourses and led to
Page 7A
the cancellation of more than 1,500
flights just ahead of the frenzied
holiday travel period.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport, the main hub
for Delta Air Lines, is a crucial cog
in the nation’s air travel system.
Delays there typically ripple across
the nation because so many U.S.
and international flights are routed
through the Atlanta hub.
Because of the magnitude of
Sunday’s outage, “we want to
be able to rule out any possible
scenario that wasn’t equipment
malfunction,” Bell said.
“We really don’t expect any
answers like that to come forth for a
few days,” he said.
The power company is working
with the airport to explore how
to prevent the situation from
happening again.
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