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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.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:24PM (1 child)
Trusting american "justice", what a fool.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @12:01AM
He also did a bunch of other crimes too. Just being a samaratain does not give you a pass to do other things.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:46PM (12 children)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:46PM
Ah, yes.... the mohammeds...
POLICE BE UPON THEM!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Arik on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:35PM (7 children)
You want to speak with Mohammed? Do you mean Mohammed Abu Mohammed? Mohammed Abu Ibrahim? Ibrahim Ibn Mohammed? Mohammed Abu Saif? Saif Ibn Mohammed? Perhaps Abdullah Mohammed Ibn Abdullah al-Faraj Ibn Salim?
They may all be named Mohammed but it's not that hard to distinguish between them. How many people are named John Smith, or Jesus Garcia?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:44PM (5 children)
The difference is John Smith doesn't think he's getting 72 virgins if he triggers a suicide vest next to you.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Arik on Thursday May 14 2020, @10:09PM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @10:46PM
GP has been assimilated into the Mohammed hive-mind! He's one of them! Aaaa!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 17 2020, @12:08PM
Not the most interesting discussion in the universe, but I can make pretty solid assumptions about german people who have been named Adolf in the past decades, so why shouldn't it work for Mohameds.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @02:12AM (1 child)
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @06:07AM
Better he's getting 72 followers on Twitter.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @02:09AM
My text is formatted so beautifully. I am like a golden rose with the sweetest scent.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Gaaark on Friday May 15 2020, @01:58AM (2 children)
Second Bruce: G'day, Bruce!
First Bruce: Oh, Hello Bruce!
Third Bruce: How are you Bruce?
First Bruce: A bit crook, Bruce.
Second Bruce: Where's Bruce?
First Bruce: He's not 'ere, Bruce.
Third Bruce: Blimey, it's hot in here, Bruce.
First Bruce: Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum!
Second Bruce: That's a strange expression, Bruce.
First Bruce: Well Bruce, I heard the Prime Minister use it. 'It's hot enough to boil a monkey's bum in here, your Majesty,' he said and she smiled quietly to herself.
Third Bruce: She's a good Sheila Bruce, and not at all stuck up.
Second Bruce: Here! Here's the boss-fellow now! - how are you Bruce?
(Enter fourth Bruce with English person, Michael)
Fourth Bruce: 'Ow are you, Bruce?
First Bruce: G'day Bruce!
Fourth Bruce: Bruce.
Second Bruce: Hello Bruce.
Fourth Bruce: Bruce.
Third Bruce: How are you, Bruce?
Fourth Bruce: G'day Bruce.
Fourth Bruce: Gentleman, I'd like to introduce man from Pommeyland who is joinin' us this year in the philosophy department at the University of Walamaloo.
Everybruce: G'day!
Michael: Hello.
Fourth Bruce: Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael Baldwin, Bruce. Michael Baldwin, Bruce.
First Bruce: Is your name not Bruce?
Michael: No, it's Michael.
Second Bruce: That's going to cause a little confusion.
Third Bruce: Mind if we call you 'Bruce' to keep it clear?
Fourth Bruce: Gentlemen, I think we better start the faculty meeting. Before we start, though, I'd like to ask the padre for a prayer.
First Bruce: Oh Lord, we beseech Thee, Amen!!
Everybruce: Amen!
Fourth Bruce: Crack tubes! (Sound of cans opening) Now I call upon Bruce to officially welcome Mr. Baldwin to the philosophy faculty.
Second Bruce: I'd like to welcome the pommey bastard to God's own Earth, and remind him that we don't like stuck-up sticky-beaks here.
Everybruce: Hear, hear! Well spoken, Bruce!
Fourth Bruce: Bruce here teaches classical philosophy, Bruce there teaches Haegelian philosophy, and Bruce here teaches logical positivism, and is also in charge of the sheep dip.
Third Bruce: What's New-Bruce going to teach?
Fourth Bruce: New-Bruce will be teaching political science, Machiavelli, Bentham, Locke, Hobbes, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Lindwall, Miller, Hassett, and Benet.
Second Bruce: Those are all cricketers!
Fourth Bruce: Aww, spit!
Third Bruce: Hails of derisive laughter, Bruce!
Everybruce: Australia, Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you amen!
Fourth Bruce: Another tube! (Sound of cans opening) Any questions?
Second Bruce: New-Bruce, are you a Poofta?
Fourth Bruce: Are you a Poofta?
Michael: No!
Fourth Bruce: No. Right, I just want to remind you of the faculty rules: Rule One!
Everybruce: No Pooftas!
Fourth Bruce: Rule Two, no member of the faculty is to maltreat the Abbos in any way at all -- if there's anybody watching...... Rule Three?
Everybruce: No Pooftas!!
Fourth Bruce: Rule Four, now this term, I don't want to catch anybody not drinking..... Rule Five,
Everybruce: No Pooftas!
Fourth Bruce: Rule Six, there is NO ... Rule Six!... Rule Seven,
Everybruce: No Pooftas!!
Fourth Bruce: Right, that concludes the readin' of the rules, Bruce.
First Bruce: This here's the wattle, the emblem of our land. You can stick it in a bottle, you can hold it in your hand.
Everybruce: Amen!
(NB: The Album versions continue with the Philosopher's song The TV version continues below....)
First Bruce: Right, let's get some Sheilas.
(An Aborigine bunts in with an enormous tray full of enormous steaks.)
Fourth Bruce: OK.
Second Bruce: Ah, elevenses.
Third Bruce: This should tide us over 'til lunchtime.
Second Bruce: Reckon so, Bruce.
First Bruce: Sydney Nolan! What's that! (points)
(Cut to dramatic close-up of Fourth Bruce's ear. Hold close-up. The superimposed arrow pointing to the ear.)
Voice Over: Number nine. The ear.
*****Album Version Continued******
(And now all four Bruces launch into the Philosopher's song)
Immanuel Kant was a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable.
Heideggar, Heideggar was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel.
And Whittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nieizsche couldn't teach 'ya 'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stewart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shanty was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart: 'I drink, therefore I am.'
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @01:53PM (1 child)
Is that from something or did you make it up?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 15 2020, @04:22PM
spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spamity spam, WONDERFUL spam.... [wikipedia.org]
But it's apropos. Isn't it, Bruce?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @08:50PM (4 children)
Isn't it weird how we still don't really know who wrote WannaCry (beyond briefly trying to pin it on North Korea), but this guy who authored other pieces of malware managed to figure out this one's incredibly stupid 'off switch', which was buying a domain name?
No? Okay.
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:31PM (3 children)
They could tell us who wrote it, but then they'd have to kill us.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday May 14 2020, @10:08PM (2 children)
This fucker deserves whatever he gets. People who enjoy L.A. are a special combination of crazy and stupid.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday May 15 2020, @04:29AM (1 child)
Hell, the normies have always been suspicious of hackers. The question ain't whether he's on our side, the question is, are we all on the same side? No discrimination? Not against anyone, including hackers and smarty pants?
That paranoid, conspiracy suspecting thinking can too easily be self-fulfilling. It's often a load of bull anyway, motivated by jealousy, spite, and the desire to bring the hacker down to everyone else's level, not genuine cause to believe he might be a traitor. Treat smart people badly, and they just might flip, like Benedict Arnold did. He was a great military leader, but his superior officers kept screwing him over, out of jealousy and fear of losing their positions to him. The revolutionaries were fighting for freedom and their lives, but somehow these officers still made room for dirty politicking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @01:59PM
It's /especially/ when they should be united that people are the most opportunistic. Why? You can sell people on crazy ideas that would never fly when ”you're all in it together." The whole situation is literally just giving opportunity to opportunists.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:20PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday May 15 2020, @01:28AM (5 children)
Which was in the 70s. Never talk to a cop without a lawyer. There was a youtube video of a lawyer showing how the most innocuous things could be Bad For You (tm), it's been a few years and I can't find them now.
Basically, if the cop decides to arrest you then you get to spend time in jail and $$$ on lawyers. You will never get that money back. The cop will never spend a dime. Plus your arrest is public record, the cop's record is sealed in HR.
Being a law abiding citizen I find that hard to follow, but I got burned some 30 years ago so I follow it. I don't talk to cops. Period.
I hate to say it, but if you're sitting at Jack In The Box and see a T-Bone crash then you might be OK talking to a cop. But I'm old, seen enough, and I would just "um, look at the cameras sir".
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 4, Informative) by epitaxial on Friday May 15 2020, @02:21AM (1 child)
The FBI does things a little differently. They ask you questions they already know the answers to. Keep that in mind.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @06:12AM
The DoJ does thing differently again. They get the FBI's evidence and the President dangles a pardon and everyone goes free.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @12:52PM
Here's what you were looking for: Don't Talk to the Police [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Saturday May 16 2020, @09:41AM (1 child)
Until someone close to you and love goes missing. Then you get to decide: do I talk to the cops and risk jail or do I talk to the cops, and hope I help them find my loved one?
I wish it were always so clear cut.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2020, @04:35PM
You'll probably have to say something, but you should keep it simple lest you become the prime suspect in a murder investigation.
(Score: 4, Touché) by fishybell on Friday May 15 2020, @02:02AM (5 children)
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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EJ on Friday May 15 2020, @02:29AM (4 children)
No. His biggest mistake was doing wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @04:34AM (3 children)
Let no good deed go unpunished.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2020, @10:47AM (1 child)
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
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
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"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 16 2020, @06:18PM
Kill the Pigs! Spill their blood!