Claim: Russian hackers were behind a massive cyberattack in 2017

Question

⚠️ #Russian hackers from the notorious Double Spider group were behind a massive cyber attack that crippled the NHS in 2017, Germany revealed on Monday https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/06/russian-double-spider-group-behind-2017-nhs-hack-germany-reveals/ #worldnews #news

Answer 1

The claim made that Russian hackers were behind the NHS 2017 cyberattack cannot be proven true or false at this time due to not enough information. 

The attack was previous led to believe that a North Korean group by the name Lazarus was the original perpetrator of this cyberattack because they are known to be the creator of the WannaCry virus that was released in this attack. This article by the United States Department of Justice shows the list of WannaCry attacks, which WannaCry 2.0 is the attack being referred to within our claim, and shows that North Korean group Lazarus is the culprit behind the virus: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/north-korean-regime-backed-programmer-charged-conspiracy-conduct-multiple-cyber-attacks-and

Although this incident of the cyberattack in 2017 was believed to be committed by North Korea, new articles are coming out, as you provided, stating Russia was the actual culprit. 

After looking into other articles, there does not seem to be defined arrests made at this time to prove that Russia was the culprit. This article: https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/6/23627238/hackers-ransomware-raid-german-ukrainian-police states that "On February 28th, German and Ukrainian police conducted simultaneous raids on the homes belonging to two suspected members. However, Daniela Dässel, a spokesperson for Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) State Police Force, tells The Verge that authorities haven’t made any arrests yet, and the suspects were released after questioning," which does not confirm that these Russian people were the culprits. Even within your article provided, The Telegraph states that "A total of eleven suspects were identified, eight of whom were located at their properties but not arrested" I am unsure why that if the police and government are sure that this attack was done by Russia, why did they not arrest these people, there seems to be no information on that to prove that these suspects did commit this crime. 

I believe that at this time, there is not enough information to prove that Russia was behind the cyberattack.

Comments

You put in a lot of effort putting together your fact-check. Great job! The Telegraph is known for pretty solid reporting and it looks like other media outlets are republishing their coverage on this incident. The reporting seems pretty definitive that Russia is responsible for the cyber attack, don't you think? "Russian hackers from the notorious Double Spider group were behind a massive cyber attack that crippled the NHS in 2017, Germany revealed on Monday. After a three-year investigation, authorities in Germany and Ukraine swooped on properties linked to the group, which is believed to be responsible for hundreds of 'ransomware' attacks."

I do find it interesting that Germany and Ukraine were involved in the investigation while it was an incident affecting the U.K., but it seems that they too have in interest since the cyberattacks are impacting those countries as well.