Slashdot: UK Security Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Outbreak Arrested in US

UK Security Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Outbreak Arrested in US
Published on August 03, 2017 at 02:40PM
Zack Whittaker, reporting for ZDNet: A security researcher who in May stopped an outbreak of the WannaCry ransomware has been arrested and detained after attending the Def Con conference in Las Vegas. Marcus Hutchins, 23, a British national, was arrested at Las Vegas airport on Wednesday by US Marshals, several close friends confirmed to ZDNet. A friend told ZDNet that he was “was pulled by Marshals at the lounge” after clearing security. He was briefly detained in a federal facility in Nevada until he was moved. “We went to see him this morning and we had already been moved,” said the friend. Hutchins is now understood to be in custody at an FBI field office in the state. Motherboard first broke the story on Thursday. Update: A Motherboard reporter tweets, “Here’s the indictment accusing @MalwareTechBlog of running the Kronos banking malware.” Update 2: New DOJ statement: Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on July 11, 2017, following a two-year long investigation, a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Marcus Hutchins, also known as “Malwaretech,” for his role in creating and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan.