British Marcus Hutchins, who discovered and activated the kill switch that stopped the WannaCry ransomware, was arrested by the FBI in America.
Hutchins was invited to the DEF CON conference, held last weekteam on Las Vegas, in Nevada and stayed a few days to do tourism in the area.
The United Kingdom National Criminal Services confirmed to The Registry that a British citizen was arrested in Nevada but did not say anything about what he was accused of.
Hutchins, also known as MalwareTechBlog on Twitter, was about to board a flight back to the UK on Wednesday when the Feds (FBI) arrested him and took him to an undisclosed location. His friends say they are worried because they have no idea what happened, why, or where he is being held.
Hutchins became famous two months ago when he WannaCry ransomware began to hit businesses, organizations and individuals around the world. Malicious software accidentally stopped its worldwide spread when Hutchins discovered a domain name hidden in its code.
Hxxp: // www [.] Iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea [.] Com
The domain was responsible for spreading the WannaCry ransomware. Hutchins bought that domain and created a sinkhole that used to redirect traffic from infected computers to a self-managed system.
His friend Andrew Mabbitt, founder of Fidus Information Security, confirmed that 23 Hutchins was arrested.
"I'm trying to find a lawyer for @MalwareTechBlog as it has no legal representation and cannot have visitors."
Hutchins, who works for an American bank from his home in Blighty, was very happy at the conference and left with a commendation he won from the car hacker Charlie Miller.
Judging from Hutchins feeds on Twitter, he would fly yesterday evening in the UK after his summer break.
Let us hope it is not something serious.
