Marcus Hutchins, the researcher who stopped the Wannacry Windows ransomware attack, has pleaded guilty to two counts of writing banking malware in 2014.
Hutchins was accused of writing a banking malware called Kronos in 2014, after he finished high school. The researcher was arrested in Las Vegas after attending the hacker conference Def Con in 2017. Days later, he plead not guilty in a Milwaukee courtroom. He was scheduled to be tried this summer.
But on Friday, Hutchins plead guilty to two counts of [cracking]. According to the guilty plea, each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 5 years, $250,000 in fines and up to 1 year of supervised release.
He has published a brief statement regarding the case on his blog.
Legal Case Update
As you may be aware, I’ve pleaded guilty to two charges related to writing malware in the years prior to my career in security. I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes. Having grown up, I’ve since been using the same skills that I misused several years ago for constructive purposes. I will continue to devote my time to keeping people safe from malware attacks.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 20 2019, @09:44PM
Hard to say. I always wondered if he knew more about WannaCry than he let on.