[ozo]

>that only a domain expert with highly specialized experience

Correct me if I'm wrong, but WannaCry isn't highly sophisticated. It weaponizes already known vulnerabilities to exploit soft targets on a large, but unsophisticated scale (because most of the victims are soft targets in terms of computer/network security). Ransomware is not a new idea either. Combining these things (known exploits, soft targets, ransomware) doesn't require genius or _highly_ specialized domain knowledge, hard to acquire intelligence or huge amounts of resources (labor or money). Any state capable of consistently spending a couple million dollars per year on a team for offensive security operations could, I suppose, pull this off.

[abeyer]

The quote, with the words you elided was:

> that only a domain expert with highly specialized experience could even recognize

Notably, it's about the expertise needed to recognize and identify the attack, not to launch it.

[zxcmx]

> any nation state...

Or one of many different groups of people who can do computers.

[nwah1]

True. And if we want to get conspiratorial, we should just blame all the viruses on Symantec.