He avoided going to prison for writing banking malware.
Marcus Hutchins' efforts to stop the spread of WannaCry malware just
helped him avoid prison time. Judge JP Stadtmueller has sentenced
Hutchins to a year of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to
creating and distributing Kronos banking malware. He was a teen when he
committed the offenses, according to the judge, and he was "turning a
corner" before he faced charges. Hutchins acknowledged that he'd made
"bad decisions" and that he had "no desire" to slip back into a life of
online crime.
There could still be serious consequences. Although Hutchins has been
living in Los Angeles since the charges came to pass, Stadtmueller
warned that the sentence will likely prevent the security researcher
from re-entering the US.
This isn't likely to satisfy people who argued Hutchins should avoid any
punishment given his efforts. It's still good news for him, though, and
may help the security industry at large. On top of snapping up the kill
switch domain that halted WannaCry, Hutchins has also conducted
important research on botnets and malware infections. He even
livestreams some efforts to show how you can reverse-engineer malware
and develop effective counters. Those efforts will continue now that
Hutchins is effectively free, even if there are conditions attached.
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