Briton who stopped WannaCry attack arrested over separate malware claims | Technology | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/03/researcher-who-stopped-wannacry-ransomware-detained-in-us?CMP=twt_gu
Marcus Hutchins, the 23-year-old British security researcher who was credited with stopping the WannaCry outbreak in its tracks by discovering a hidden “kill switch” for the malware, has been arrested by the FBI over his alleged involvement in another malicious software targeting bank accounts.
According to an indictment released by the US Department of Justice on Thursday, Hutchins is accused of having helped to create, spread and maintain the banking trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015.
The Kronos malware was spread through emails with malicious attachments such as compromised Microsoft word documents, and hijacked credentials like internet banking passwords to let its user steal money with ease.
“A lot of us thought of Kronos as crimeware-as-a-service,” Kalember said, since a Kronos buyer would also be getting “free updates and support” and that “implied there’s a large group behind it”.
This could very easily be the FBI mistaking legitimate research activity with being in control of Kronos infrastructure
Ryan Kalember, security researcher
He also warned that the actions of a researcher examining the malware can look very similar to those of a criminal in charge of it. “This could very easily be the FBI mistaking legitimate research activity with being in control of Kronos infrastructure. Lots of researchers like to log in to crimeware tools and interfaces and play around.”
On top of that, for a researcher looking into the world of banking hacks, “sometimes you have to at least pretend to be selling something interesting to get people to trust you”, he said. “It’s not an uncommon thing for researchers to do and I don’t know if the FBI could tell the difference.”
Hutchins, better known online by his handle MalwareTech, had been in Las Vegas for the annual Def Con hacking conference, the largest of its kind in the world. He was at the airport preparing to leave the country when he was arrested, after more than a week in the the city without incident.
