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Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

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Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#161
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure Sweden has a certain Australian that, according to many on this site, they've been very unfair to.

He isn't even in Sweden.

Yes, well aware of that.

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was pretty sure TouchMe was BetaMonkey's new nick, I don't think it was Ntoskrnl (MalwareTech). From what I've heard TouchMe continued support of his drone's users until he dissapeared without a trace. This was so long ago and my memory isn't amazing.

TouchMe is MalwareTech, 0 doubt https://twitter.com/touchmymalware If BetaMonkey==TouchMe then they were trying really hard to conceal that. Here's a hackforums thread mentioning some other malware TouchMe was distributing though https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=3786935

> TouchMe is MalwareTech, 0 doubt https://twitter.com/touchmymalware

If I was a bad man in the security profession who was certain he was anonymous, I'd point to someone else who was a security professional on twitter when I vanished too.

It just y'know, wouldn't have been me.

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's at the FBI field office in Las Vegas: https://twitter.com/MabbsSec/status/893166585736724481

Indicted: "Hutchins, who is indicted with another un-named co-defendant, stands accused of six counts of hacking-related crimes as a result of his alleged involvement with Kronos. “Defendent Marcus Hutchins created the Kronos malware,”" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/03/researche...

Indictment:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3912520-Marcus-Hutch...

He was supposedly selling the malware on Alphabay, of all places.

https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/89318510973782016...

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by all appearances a lawful and routine arrest.

That's besides the point. In the US the police can do anything they like to you.

Then your comment is off-topic.

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#166

The Guardian has more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/03/researche... He may have a shady past: According to an indictment released by the US Department of Justice, Hutchins is accused of having helped to spread and maintain the banking trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015"

Since he's only been in custody for less than 24 hours, and CNN already has the indictment, presumably the DOJ had his case before a grand jury awhile ago. Which implies that they did not do this on a whim. Since CNN has the indictment, we'll all have it soon enough, and we'll get a look at the basis for the DOJ's claims.

Date on the indictment says July 12th. So this has been cooking for a while.

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The patriot act (amazing name) invalidated that statement. Not sure if it applies in this specific case.

The full name of the "USA PATRIOT" act: > Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

[deleted]

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's at the FBI field office in Las Vegas: https://twitter.com/MabbsSec/status/893166585736724481

Indicted: "Hutchins, who is indicted with another un-named co-defendant, stands accused of six counts of hacking-related crimes as a result of his alleged involvement with Kronos. “Defendent Marcus Hutchins created the Kronos malware,”" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/03/researche...

Just to make this all stranger:

   @MalwareTechBlog
   Anyone got a kronos sample?
   10:26 AM - 13 Jul 2014

https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/48837379416825446...

edit:

Weird, read the Indictment. This day is specifically called out (although not this post).

edit #2:

The video mentioned in the indictment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZPzMzK78tc&feature=youtu.be

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#169

I'm curious what charges are being brought against him. For all we know, this detention is completely unrelated to WannaCry. We shall see.

I may be totally off base here but IIRC, before he ran MalwareTech and was a whitehat, he participated (and was an op) in fairly "shady" IRC channels, with his oldest nick I can recall being `Ntoskrnl`, dedicated to malware and malware development which even had a person ( Edit3: As pointed out in this thread, that person was `BetaMonkey/TouchMe`) who was selling a variant of a botnet drone client builder. Edit2: Fro…

This is exactly right.

Re: Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

#170
post #94

I'm curious what charges are being brought against him. For all we know, this detention is completely unrelated to WannaCry. We shall see.

> For all we know, this detention is completely unrelated to WannaCry. No everyone has already determined 'wow he did a good deed' and 'us law enforcement bad'. The fact is he is linked to this event and a person of interest who they want to get more info from. As such it makes total sense they would detain him for some questioning searches and so on. If you are someone who stops a crime you will also get questioned…

Exactly. Question to all those who think the USA is so bad...why don't you leave?
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