Security companies around the world were falling over themselves during the last few days in order to try and eke some publicity out of the WannaCry Windows ransomware episode. While some managed to get a bit of the spotlight, one company that took a beating was Sophos.

Undeterred by the fact that its statement about a new version of the WannaCry ransomware without a kill switch proved to be false, Kaspersky Lab is ploughing ahead with new speculation, this time claiming that the malware could have originated in North Korea.

An alleged NSA hacking tool appears to have been used to craft ransomware and stage attacks on hospitals in Britain and various organisations in other countries, with demands for payment after the malware was used to lock Windows systems at these institutions.