Microsoft’s top lawyer is laying some of the blame for Friday’s massive cyber attack at the feet of the US government. Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer Brad Smith criticised US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), for “stockpiling” software code that can be used by hackers.
Cybersecurity experts say the unknown hackers who launched this weekend’s “ransomware” attacks used a vulnerability that was exposed in NSA documents leaked online.
In a post on Microsoft’s blog, Mr Smith said: “An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the US military having some of its Tomahawk missiles stolen.”
He said governments should “report vulnerabilities” that they discover to software companies, “rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them.”The “ransomware” attack has hit as many as 200,000 victims in over 150 countries.
