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https://thehackernews.com/2018/06/marcus-hutchins-malware.html
Marcus Hutchins, the British malware analyst who helped stop global Wannacry menace, is now facing four new charges related to malware he allegedly created and promoted it online to steal financial information.
Hutchins, the 24-year-old better known as MalwareTech, was arrested by the FBI last year as he was headed home to England from the DefCon conference in Las Vegas for his alleged role in creating and distributing Kronos between 2014 and 2015.
Kronos is a Banking Trojan designed to steal banking credentials and personal information from victims' computers, which was sold for $7,000 on Russian online forums, and the FBI accused Hutchins of writing and promoting it online, including via YouTube.
Hutchins pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in August 2017 in Milwaukee and release on $30,000 bail.
However, earlier this week, a revised superseding indictment [PDF] was filed with the Wisconsin Eastern District Court, under which Hutchins faces four new charges along with the six prior counts filed against him by the FBI a month before his arrest.
According to the new indictment, Hutchins created a second piece of malware, known as "UPAS Kit," and also lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) when he was arrested and questioned last year in Las Vegas.
[...] As the news on the revised indictment broke, Hutchins, who has repeatedly denied any illegal activity, called the charges "bullshit" and appealed to his Twitter followers for donations to cover legal costs.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday June 10 2018, @11:41AM (13 children)
Back in the late 90s I bought a few things on eBay... then one month a $20 charge showed up on my CC from Russia. I called the CC company and got the charge reversed and within a month after that, I (not just the one CC) got perma-banned from using eBay. Seems like the Russians didn't like the chargeback fees or something and they got eBay's sympathy in the matter - fine with me, looking back at the crap I did buy on eBay and the legitimate items I tried to sell but paid listing fees and never got a bid, 20 years without eBay access is more like a bonus than a punishment.
It could be that these charges are all true and Hutchins is really a bad dude who's stupid enough to have put himself in the limelight taking down WannaCry. It seems more likely to me that actors connected with WannaCry (or somebody else he pissed off) are piling these charges on him with planted evidence. I really have no way of knowing the truth, and the sad things are: A) just going through the trial process is a huge punishment in itself, and B) the jury isn't going to be in much better position at the end of the trial to judge guilt or innocence than I am sitting here right now.
I hope, for karma's sake, that he's innocent and all this publicity turns into a big win for him, or that he's guilty and gets the punishment he deserves - however, it seems likely that random chance gives equal odds to the opposite actions and outcomes.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Sunday June 10 2018, @01:58PM
Just think of all the money you saved not buying old computer shit.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @02:34PM (7 children)
JFC, has this site descended into pure conspiracy mongering? No evidence was planted, all that's going on here is that the DOJ making mountains out of molehills because the people involved are careerists and oversight has recently gone to shit.
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:30PM (4 children)
Far be it from me to be a calming influence instead of a troublemaker, but it occurs to me that these can easily be two very different ways to describe the same chicanery. It's not much of a stretch.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:56PM (3 children)
Exactly. Whether you call it "planted evidence," or "trumped up charges showing code he wrote while a minor" or whatever else - it's making something out of nothing that should be brought up in the first place.
I could have fought to get my access to eBay restored, but it just wasn't worth it - at all...
They're forcing this guy to play the lawyer game, which is just as productive as Global Thermonuclear War. [rottentomatoes.com]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @05:37PM (2 children)
Hello? Words have meaning. Nobody plants weak evidence. Going to all that effort to fake something that, if it were real would barely matter?
I don't know if you are trying to save face or really are so labile that you'll grasp at anything to validate yourself. But whatever's going on with you, its not a serious analysis of the situation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @07:55PM (1 child)
Planting evidence, weak, strong, or nonexistent, is a tried and tested tool of manipulation and coercion, perhaps of the subject, perhaps using the subject only incidentally to influence someone else.
To say that "nobody" plants evidence that doesn't meet your high standards assumes that the only motive could be to have really great charges that stick as-is. However, this is only one of many motives for planting evidence, and probably not the most common one. The situation is not black and white, but has many shades of gray, in more than one dimension.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @09:04PM
JFC, talk about goalpost moving. The OPs whole schtick was about planted evidence (and some rambling unrelated story about himself). He's obviously off the deep-end of conspiracy fantasies. You have come along and enabled his delusions by saying "Well, maybe your totally bonkers bullshit isn't true, but this enormously different thing actually counts because they are both bad!" Please tell me you are doing that on purpose and don't actually believe a turtle and a whale are identical because they both breath air and live in the water.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @04:34PM (1 child)
The careerists are not the problem, it is the political transients. The careerists are the last line of defense. They're the ones telling cabinet secretaries, no, you actually cannot turn your siren on go get through rush hour traffic because you have a dinner reservation (and then get fired or reassigned for it). They're the ones that keep the administration in power honest to what the law actually is, which turns out to be VERY important for the current administration. The current administration considers them disloyal because they are the ones that are telling them "no, that is against the law", and they are a particularly important line of defense because the one body that is supposed to be the check and balance has refused to uphold the Constitution and actually do its job.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @05:43PM
Look, I agree with you in that the people you describe are the only ones holding the line against historic levels of corruption.
But those people are not careerists: [thefreedictionary.com]
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Sunday June 10 2018, @04:58PM (3 children)
In defense of eBay, they never know which side to pick, since they require both the sellers and buyers. Every 2-3 year they will change their policy to make it buyer friendly or seller friendly and vice-versa, and lose some from the other side, which is why they are a dying company now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @07:57PM (2 children)
FTFY.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday June 11 2018, @01:58AM (1 child)
But it doesn't, right? I used to work in PayPal when it was still part of eBay, so I know somethings about how it works. It is eBay's curse that they cater to 2nd-hand market and 2nd-hand market is full of shady sellers and buyers.
I know you hate eBay, but let me tell you it is totally dependent on the demographic. There are countries where eBay competes directly with amazon, and there are countries where eBay is competes with craiglist.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by requerdanos on Monday June 11 2018, @05:42AM
No, I merely dislike their capricious and uncaring standoffishness and their unevenly enforced policies. Doesn't mean I don't buy and sell things there.