The hacker who stopped the WannaCry malware is now facing federal charges

The hacker who stopped the WannaCry malware is now facing federal charges

6 years ago
Anonymous $V7g1X9rE3i

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2017/08/03/the-hacker-who-stymied-the-wannacry-ransomware-has-been-arrested-heres-why/

A 22-year-old hacker who helped slow the spread of the WannaCry global computer virus in May has been arrested by U.S. officials and charged with participating in a scheme to spread a different type of malware — one that aimed to collect victims' financial data, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The six-count indictment claims that Marcus Hutchins, a British man who goes by the Twitter handle @Malwaretechblog, violated U.S. computer-related fraud laws when he created and conspired to sell a “banking trojan” known as Kronos online. The indictment was unsealed when Hutchins was arrested and is unrelated to WannaCry, according to the Justice Department. Hutchins’s arrest was first reported by Motherboard.