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posted by janrinok on Sunday June 10 2018, @11:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-not-going-his-way dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @01:34PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 10 2018, @01:34PM (#691091)

    Some of the best coverage of this trial comes from natsec reporter Marcy Wheel, aka emptywheel. Her latest article, [emptywheel.net] in which she shows that the code in the charges was written when Marcus was still not of legal age, and that these charges show that their actual case against him for stuff he did as an adult is weak ass.

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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:25PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 10 2018, @03:25PM (#691111) Journal

    code in the charges was written when Marcus was still not of legal age

    Someone Who totally Isn't Me worried for years that he would be charged for the hacking, cracking, and phreaking that he did as a kid, you know, just part of the normal process of growing up as a computer nerd in times past, and if that had happened, SWIM would probably be under a jail cell somewhere. Fortunately, statute of limitations [cornell.edu] has mostly expired, according to a lawyer he consulted.

    SWIM is old enough for that, but I guess Marcus isn't.