Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser
The sinkhole that saved the internet
It was late afternoon on May 12, 2017. Two exhausted security researchers could barely unpack the events of what had just happened.
Marcus Hutchins and Jamie Hankins, who were working from their homes in the U.K. for Los Angeles-based cybersecurity company Kryptos Logic, had just stopped a global cyberattack dead in its tracks. Hours earlier, WannaCry ransomware began to spread like wildfire, encrypting systems and crippling businesses and transport hubs across Europe. It was the first time in a decade a computer worm began attacking computers on a massive scale. The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) was one of the biggest organizations hit, forcing doctors to turn patients away and emergency rooms to close.
Hours after the disruption began to break on broadcast news networks, Hutchins — who at the time was only known by his online handle @MalwareTech — became an “accidental hero” for inadvertently stopping the cyberattack by registering a web domain found in the malware’s code.
The internet, still reeling from the damage, had gotten off lightly. The two researchers, at the time both in their early 20s, had saved the internet from a powerful nation-state attack launched by an enemy using hacking tools developed by the West.
But the attack was far from over.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @07:49PM
In August 2017, Hutchins was arrested by FBI agents in Las Vegas on suspicion of authoring and/or selling “Kronos,” a strain of malware designed to steal online banking credentials. A British citizen, Hutchins has been barred from leaving the United States since his arrest.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/marcus-malwaretech-hutchins-pleads-guilty-to-writing-selling-banking-malware/ [krebsonsecurity.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 14 2019, @08:39PM (1 child)
Whole antivirus industry always had its own dark side, to keep business as usual going...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday July 14 2019, @10:28PM
Don't forget about big pharma, the military industrial complex, "climate change" advocacy, and American and Israeli intelligence services.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @01:48AM (1 child)
So two years later, they are still in their early or mid 20s. WTF?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kazzie on Monday July 15 2019, @06:22AM
It'll make more sense to people who read the article in a decade or so.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mykl on Monday July 15 2019, @04:03AM (1 child)
...to think that there are still millions of infected WannaCry devices out there ready to 'explode' as soon as a network connection dies.
When I think of the original of the exploit (NSA tools), it does force me to look at Government attempts to create backdoors into apps (with the assurance that they will be the only ones to hold the key) with even more scepticism. Any tool or exploit created or owned by the government will eventually find its way out into the open, often with devastating consequences.
(Score: 2) by Lester on Tuesday July 16 2019, @01:48PM
Sad, now everybody can do what we do
Devasting for who?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 15 2019, @11:44AM
That's what caused this problem.