Arrest related to Wannacry made, but it’s not who you might think

Arrest related to Wannacry made, but it's  not who you might think

Back in May, a number of computers and corporate networks were infected by the WannaCry ransomware attack. If you’ll recall, Wannacry would encrypt your files and instruct you to pay a ransom in Bitcoin to unknown attackers if you wanted your files decrypted. A British researcher was widely credited for finding an exploit in WannaCry where it could be disabled. Now, that man has been arrested.

23-year-old Marcus Hutchins was arrested at Defcon, a cybersecurity and hackers conference that’s held annually in Las Vegas. The US Justice Department says Hutchins was allegedly part of another piece of malware called Kronos, Kronos is said to be used in stealing log in information of financial websites enabling an attacker to gain a users’ financial information in theory. The DOJ believes Hutchins made and sold Kronos resulting in a six-count indictment against him, however, those who know him from the cybersecurity field say Hutchins was dedicated to stopping attacks like Kronos and could not possibly be guilty of the crimes he’s accused of.

Meanwhile, the attackers behind WannaCry finally collected their $140,000 in Bitcoin ransom. While it will be difficult for them to convert Bitcoin into cash without revealing themselves, prosecution may be unlikely considering the attack was believed to have originated from North Korea.