MalwareTech, Hero Who Stopped Ransomware Attack, Pleads Not Guilty to Computer Fraud
Marcus Hutchins, the British cybersecurity researcher credited with stopping a worldwide ransomware attack in May, pleaded not guilty Monday to unrelated federal charges of creating and distributing his own well-known banking malware.
Hutchins, 23, of Ilfracombe, England, better known by the alias MalwareTech, could face as many as 40 years in prison if he's convicted on all six counts in the federal indictment (PDF), which accuses him of having created the notorious banking malware Kronos and of having conspired with an unidentified co-defendant to commit computer fraud beginning in July 2014.
Prosecutors haven't explained why Hutchins is being prosecuted in Wisconsin, and the grand jury indictment doesn't clarify matters much further, saying only that some of the alleged offenses occurred in Wisconsin "and elsewhere."
Hutchins remains free on $30,000 bail pending his next scheduled court appearance on Oct. 17. U.S. Magistrate Judge William E. Duffin loosened some of Hutchins' bail restrictions, allowing him to relocate to Los Angeles, near his legal team, and to resume using computers for work. He had been barred from using internet-connected devices after he was arrested Aug. 2 in Las Vegas, where he was attending the Black Hat and Def Con hacking conferences.
Read the rest at: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/malwaretech-hero-who-stopped-ransomware-attack-pleads-not-guilty-computer-n792711
