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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 30 2019, @07:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-don't-think-we're-in-Kansas-any-more dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The British security enthusiast enjoyed instant fame after the U.K. media revealed he'd registered and sinkholed a domain name that researchers later understood served as a hidden "kill switch" inside WannaCry, a fast-spreading, highly destructive strain of ransomware which propagated through a Microsoft Windows exploit developed by and subsequently stolen from the U.S. National Security Agency.

In August 2017, FBI agents arrested then 23-year-old Hutchins on suspicion of authoring and spreading the "Kronos" banking trojan and a related malware tool called UPAS Kit. Hutchins was released shortly after his arrest, but ordered to remain in the United States pending trial.

Many in the security community leaped to his defense at the time, noting that the FBI's case appeared flimsy and that Hutchins had worked tirelessly through his blog to expose cybercriminals and their malicious tools. Hundreds of people donated to his legal defense fund.

In September 2017, KrebsOnSecurity published research which strongly suggested Hutchins' dozens of alter egos online had a fairly lengthy history of developing and selling various malware tools and services. In April 2019, Hutchins pleaded guilty to criminal charges of conspiracy and to making, selling or advertising illegal wiretapping devices.

At his sentencing hearing July 26, U.S. District Judge Joseph Peter Stadtmueller said Hutchins' action in halting the spread of WannaCry was far more consequential than the two malware strains he admitted authoring, and sentenced him to time served plus one year of supervised release.

"When it comes to matter of loss or gain," Wheeler wrote, quoting Judge Stadtmeuller. "the most striking is comparison between you passing Kronos and WannaCry, if one looks at loss & numbers of infections, over 8B throughout world w/WannaCry, and >120M in UK."

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2, Troll) by SparkyGSX on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:02AM (4 children)

    by SparkyGSX (4041) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:02AM (#873051)

    So the judge is saying he did something bad, but because he also did something else that was good, the bad deed was compensated and he doesn't deserve any more jail time? Does this mean a doctor who has saved a few people can commit a murder freely?

    --
    If you do what you did, you'll get what you got
    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Troll=1, Insightful=1, Total=2
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    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Chocolate on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:24AM (2 children)

    by Chocolate (8044) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:24AM (#873052) Journal

    More like a doctor who has saved tens of thousands of lives who is caught out killing one patient who is let go with time served and a stern warning?

    --
    Bit-choco-coin anyone?
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:55PM (#873167)

      what is interesting is that this happened in the "public" domain.
      obviously cluberments save lots of "patients" regularly and then kill a few. it's for the greater good.
      nobody blinks a eye if "good 'ol mom, the cluberment, looking out for all of us" does it.
      it's interesting, because it looks like the public can do it too, now.
      karma written into law ^_^

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 09 2019, @09:24AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 09 2019, @09:24AM (#877824)

      Troll=1, Insightful=1, Interesting=2, Disagree=1, Total=5

      Oooookay. WTF?

  • (Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday July 31 2019, @12:39PM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Wednesday July 31 2019, @12:39PM (#873504) Homepage Journal

    Not at all. The guy has been in jail for years already. The judge has a range of possible sentences, and chose a sentence on the lenient side.

    Not seeing a problem here: the judge is using his judgment, considering the whole context. That's what judges are supposed to do.

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.