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Researcher Who Stopped WannaCry Ransomware Detained in US After Def Con

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201–210 of 268 posts

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

#201
Reading the indictment, it seems like his partner ratted him out. Curious though, the indictment seems to list the redacted partner as doing most of the incriminating things (posting a video demonstration, advertising the sale on AlphaBay, etc), it merely accused Marcus as being the author and co-conspirator.

I wonder if his partner/friend got caught, and plea bargained to turn state's evidence against Marcus.

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

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That tweet was in 2013 however.

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

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#204

Reading the indictment, it seems like his partner ratted him out. Curious though, the indictment seems to list the redacted partner as doing most of the incriminating things (posting a video demonstration, advertising the sale on AlphaBay, etc), it merely accused Marcus as being the author and co-conspirator. I wonder if his partner/friend got caught, and plea bargained to turn state's evidence against Marcus.

Makes me wonder if he was involved with criminal intentions - maybe they produced it together as a research project, then the partner decided to sell it? It would explain why he wanted a sample of his own software, if it wasn't just a cover.

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

#205

FYI, if you've committed any form of cybercrime in the previous 3 years (edit: the statute of limitations is 5 years for most federal computer crimes, as pointed out below), you should avoid such conferences in the US for exactly this reason. You probably aren't as smart as you think, and there may be a sealed arrest warrant for you. The FBI waits for these kinds of conferences to do exactly what they did here. Anoth…

This is really flippant, but you could just generalise to "avoid the US."

Or you could not make and sell malware, no matter where you are in the world.

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

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are absolutely details: > Motherboard verified that a detainee called Marcus Hutchins, 23, was being held at the Henderson Detention Center in Nevada early on Thursday. So at least we know he was detained. This one relies on a friend, so presumably it's "less verified" as far as these things go: > A few hours after, Hutchins was moved to another facility, according to a close personal friend. I don't know if Mo…

Detained for what? You don't know. I mean, I agree, detainment isn't usually the way to make friends, but those are not specific details of the incident.

> Detained for what? You don't know.

That's rather my concern.

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

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really flippant, but you could just generalise to "avoid the US."

Or you could not make and sell malware, no matter where you are in the world.

Has he been convicted?

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

#208
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why this is being downvoted, it's accurate.

Probably because it lacks references.

Well, there was the Chicago story a few years back... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-poli...

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

#210
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Instead of apologizing for potentially spreading FUD and falsehoods, maybe you should refrain from posting until you have actual facts in hand?

Kind of like the assumptions as to why he was arrested?
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