Marcus Hutchins was a relatively unknown British cybersecurity researcher until he helped stop the “WannaCry” ransomware attack that plagued countless companies, hospitals, and governments around the world earlier this year. The “WannaCry” software locked a computer until the user paid the perpetrators a ransom of roughly three hundred dollars.
Hutchins discovered that the virus could be stopped by controlling a specific website and then purchased the site for a little over ten dollars. While he initially hoped to simply track the spread of the virus, purchasing the site triggered a kill-switch that put an end to the global attack.
Hutchins tried his best to remain anonymous, going instead by his Twitter handle, but it only took a matter of days for journalists to discover his identity. Now he’s back in the news, but for a much more sobering reason.
It turns out the man who saved the world’s computers had allegedly crafted and sold some malware of his own a few years prior.
The program was intended to steal banking information and was made available for several thousand dollars. It’s unclear how many used the program, or the extent of the damage, but Hutchins has since been arrested outside the Las Vegas airport and indicted on six counts of computer fraud.
