MalwareTech, the Security Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware, Gets No Prison Time for Hacking Crimes

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kxewv/malwaretech-wannacry-ransomware-sentencing

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Vice.com
July 26, 2019

Marcus Hutchins, a security researcher who gained worldwide notoriety for 
helping stop the disruptive and viral WannaCry malware, was sentenced to 
time served and supervised release on Friday, according to reporters who 
were present at the hearing.

The researcher, also known as MalwareTech, plead guilty to two counts of 
hacking in April for his role in the making of the Kronos banking malware 
when he was a teenager.

The feds arrested Hutchins in 2017 after he traveled to Las Vegas for a 
hacking conference, just a few weeks after he and a colleague at the time 
created a so-called “sinkhole” that stopped the spread of WannaCry. Some 
news reports hailed Hutchins as a “hero” at the time, a label he shied 
away from. His arrest captivated and sometimes stirred controversy within 
the cybersecurity industry, with some confused as to why US prosecutors 
were going after Hutchins for crimes committed years prior.

The two counts of hacking crimes Hutchins pleaded guilty to each carried a 
maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, $250,000 in fines, and up to 1 year 
of supervised release. The judge weighed his role in stopping WannaCry, as 
well as the prosecutor’s failure to show how much damage Kronos actually 
made, in giving Hutchins a lower sentence.

[...]

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