The US administration said that Pyongyang is directly responsible for the cyberattack using the virus-extortionist WannaCry, which in May this year, hospitals, banks and other businesses and institutions around the world.

The virus has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries, the aggregate damage from the attack is estimated at billions of dollars.

Accusations against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were voiced by US presidential adviser Thomas Bossert in an article published in the Wall Street Journal.

Bossert, who advises Donald Trump on national security issues, said his accusations are based on convincing evidence and added that the UK authorities and Microsoft share his point of view and also blame the attack on the structures associated with the DPRK government.

In May this year, tens of thousands of computers running on the Windows operating system were infected with a virus-extortioner who blocked access to the contents of the hard drive and demanded a ransom, threatening otherwise to destroy all the stored information.

In his article Bossert states that the DPRK authorities must be held accountable for this attack and that the US will continue to pursue a "strategy of maximum pressure" on the North Korean regime in order to deprive Pyongyang of the opportunity to carry out such cyberattacks.

What steps the US authorities intend to take in response to this attack, Trump's adviser did not specify.

Against Pyongyang, serious economic sanctions have already been imposed after the United States, in response to further missile tests and the continuation of its nuclear program, included the DPRK in the list of countries supporting terrorism at the state level.

"As we strive to make the Internet safer, we will continue to call to account those who threaten us or harm us, whether individuals, criminal groups or hostile countries," writes Bossert.

"The opportunities that totalitarian regimes have are too great a danger to be ignored," he said..

It is expected that on Tuesday the White House will issue an official statement, laying the blame for this attack on the North Korean authorities.

Cyberattack, carried out with the help of the extortion virus WannaCry in May this year, began with Britain and Spain and affected more than 150 countries.

Russia was among the countries most affected by the attack: the computer systems of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Investigative Committee, the company RZD, banks and mobile operator Megafon were attacked.

Among the most seriously affected by the virus was the British Public Health System (NHS).

Many hospitals and polyclinics were forced to send patients home, because staff could not access computer information.

Europol called cyber attack unprecedented.

Experts from Kaspersky Lab previously assumed that the virus could be created by North Korean hackers from the Lazarus grouping. This group, in particular, is responsible for the theft of 81 million dollars from the Central Bank of Bangladesh in February last year.

Source: BBC.