No Jail Time for “Wanna Cry Hero”
Summary: Marcus Hutchins, the researcher credited with registering the domain that halted the 2017 WannaCry ransomware outbreak, was sentenced on July 26, 2019 by U.S. District Judge Joseph Peter Stadtmueller to time served plus one year of supervised release for authoring and selling the Kronos banking trojan and UPAS Kit. Hutchins, arrested by the FBI in August 2017 at age 23 and pleaded guilty in April 2019 to conspiracy and to making, selling or advertising illegal wiretapping devices, will not be allowed to stay in or visit the United States.
Bottom line: Prosecutors could not show convincing evidence of specific financial losses tied to any banking trojan victims, most of them overseas, while the judge weighed Hutchins' role in stopping WannaCry at over 8 billion infections worldwide and more than 120 million in the UK. The conviction still bars a security researcher who stopped a global outbreak from entering the United States, and the judge suggested he seek a presidential pardon to return.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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