Alwaght- Microsoft has slammed top US spy agency, NSA, for their major role in spreading a computer virus that paralyzed hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. The tech giant urged governments to use and store their cyber warfare tools responsibly.
The WannaCry ransomware infected more than 100,000 computers worldwide on Friday, extorting victims to pay hundreds of dollars’ worth in Bitcoin or face losing their files.
“We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the US National Security Agency (NSA) has affected customers around the world,” Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith said in a blog post on Sunday. “This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem.”
The NSA exploit codes were leaked earlier this year by the Shadow Brokers hacking group which had previously been offering the US government cyber weapons in exchange for millions of dollars in Bitcoin.
The US government’s repeated mishandling of exploits in their possession allows them to leak into the public domain and cause “widespread damage,” Smith wrote, adding that an “equivalent scenario… would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.”
An investigation is currently underway to determine the source of the ransomware cyber-attack. According to the European Cybercrime Centre, Europol is “working closely” with countries affected by the blitz to identify the culprits.
