The British Marcus Hutchins who discovered and activated the kill switch that stopped the ransomware WannaCry, arrested by the FBI in America.
Hutchins had been invited to DEF CON, held last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, and few days left 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, he was about to board a flight back to the UK on Wednesday when the FBI arrested him and took him to an unknown location. His friends say they are worried because they have no idea what happened, why, and where he is being held.
Hutchins became famous two months ago when he WannaCry ransomware it started beating businesses, organizations and individuals around the world. The malware accidentally stopped its global 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-year-old Hutchins was arrested.
"I'm trying to find a lawyer for @MalwareTechBlog as it has no legal representation and cannot have visitors."
Ο Hutchins, ο οποίος δουλεύει για μια αμερικανική τράπεζα από το σπίτι του στο Blighty, ήταν πολύ ευχαριστημένος στο συνέδριο και έφυγε με ένα έπαινο που κέρδισε από τον hacker αυτοκινήτων 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.
