By pleading guilty to hacking offenses, Hutchins faces jail time and compensation.
Marcus Hutchins is the British hacker who figured out how to stop WannaCry ransomware. He recently announced that convicted of hacking offenses against the banking system of the United States. Hutchins could face up to a year in jail for each of the criminal charges. To this must be added financial penalties.
The hacker became known worldwide when he found a way to stop WannaCry ransomware. WannaCry affected more than 141 computers including those of the Spanish company Telefónica and the British health service.
Hutchins is better known in the hacker world by his alias Malware Tech. In a statement he clarified that those charges referred to an earlier stage in his life.
"I regret these actions and accept full responsibility for my mistakes",
The hacker, who is currently working as a security consultant, continued:
“Having grown up, since then I have been using the same skills that I misused several years ago for constructive purposes. I will continue to spend my time keeping people safe from malware attacks. "
In 2017, Hutchins found a way to stop the spread of WannaCry. The ransomware tried to connect to an unregistered domain, failing to do so, it encrypted the hard drive. When registering the domain, WannaCry connected and did not encrypt anything.
Considered a hero by the media, vwent to a hacker conference in Las Vegas. In this city he was arrested on charges he now acknowledged.
The federal indictment, initiated in Wisconsin, accused him of being responsible for distributing the Kronos banking Trojan. Kronos stole usernames and passwords from banking sites.
Detail of the accusation
According to the indictment, Hutchins was part of a conspiracy to distribute the hacking tool in the so-called dark markets.
Released on bail while awaiting trial, he continued to work for a security company. Until his statement, he had maintained his innocence
After his arrest the hacker community sided with him. His argument was that lResearchers often work with computer code that can be deployed for malicious purposes.
Prosecutors have yet to comment, so it is not possible to know if the plea is part of an agreement to reduce the sentence.