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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the crime-doesn't-pay dept.

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet (archive)

At 22, he single-handedly put a stop to the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Then he was arrested by the FBI. This is his untold story.

[...] For the next few minutes, the agents struck a friendly tone, asking Hutchins about his education and Kryptos Logic, the security firm where he worked. For those minutes, Hutchins allowed himself to believe that perhaps the agents wanted only to learn more about his work on WannaCry, that this was just a particularly aggressive way to get his cooperation into their investigation of that world-shaking cyberattack. Then, 11 minutes into the interview, his interrogators asked him about a program called Kronos.

"Kronos," Hutchins said. "I know that name." And it began to dawn on him, with a sort of numbness, that he was not going home after all.

[...] Despite his sentence of time served, his legal case forced him to overstay his visa, and he's soon likely to be deported back to England. As we walk into Santa Monica, past rows of expensive beach homes, he says his goal is to eventually get back here to LA, which now feels more like home than Devon. "Someday I'd like to be able to live in a house by the ocean like this," he says, "Where I can look out the window and if the waves are good, go right out and surf."

A long, but interesting read.


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by fishybell on Friday May 15 2020, @02:02AM (5 children)

    by fishybell (3156) on Friday May 15 2020, @02:02AM (#994478)

    Interesting tale of caution to say the least.

    Did he do wrong? Yes. Did he do right? Yes.

    Was his biggest mistake giving out personal details online? Probably.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by EJ on Friday May 15 2020, @02:29AM (4 children)

    by EJ (2452) on Friday May 15 2020, @02:29AM (#994489)

    No. His biggest mistake was doing wrong.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @04:34AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @04:34AM (#994526)

      Let no good deed go unpunished.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @10:47AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @10:47AM (#994574)

        Let no good deed go unpunished.

        Let's put it this way. If he didn't do the "good things", he would still in the in "pound in the ass" federal prison and looking at another 5 or 10.

        Doing a good thing doesn't make the bad go away. You have to be right kind of criminal for the law to ignore you (see well connected criminals in law enforcement, justice system, politics, big banks, etc.). If you are some loser on drugs, then you just have to throw yourself on the mercy of the courts and pray that no one important has a grudge against you.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @02:37PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @02:37PM (#994630)

          The more you can spend on your lawyer, the less problems you have. 1000$ is sufficient for most misdemeanors. 10000 can make a few years into 20 days.

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday May 15 2020, @01:16PM

        by Freeman (732) on Friday May 15 2020, @01:16PM (#994603) Journal

        While it may seem like that, the truth of the matter is he did some pretty shady things, which likely ended up with regular people losing lots of money. Probably the best thing he did was not tell the FBI a blatant lie. Then, he listened to his lawyer and threw himself on the mercy of the court. Since, he was guilty and the FBI had evidence that said he was. He may have, eventually been caught for the things he had done, but being in the spotlight, really pulls out the dirty laundry. Still, seems to me like he has gone legit and he got the best possible outcome that he could have hoped for. He didn't even spend that much time in jail as someone bailed him out.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"