British Marcus Hutchins who discovered and activated the kill switch that stopped the ransomware WannaCry, was 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, was ready to board a flight to return to the United Kingdom on Wednesday when the FBI arrested him and led him to an unknown location. His friends say they are worried because they have no idea what happened, why, and what is being held.
Hutchins became famous two months ago when he WannaCry ransomware it started hitting businesses, organizations and individuals all over the world. The malware It accidentally stopped spreading worldwide 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 hacker Charlie Miller cars.
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.
