Mebbe dat's how he knew how to crack Wannacry...
Hacker who helped control WannaCry arrested in Nevada
Sat, Aug 05, 2017 - Marcus Hutchins, a young British researcher credited with derailing a global cyberattack in May, was arrested for allegedly creating and distributing malicious software designed to collect bank-account passwords, US authorities said on Thursday.
See also:News of Hutchins’ detention came as a shock to the cybersecurity community. Many had rallied behind the researcher whose quick thinking helped control the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled thousands of computers. Hutchins was detained in Las Vegas on his way back to Britain from an annual gathering of hackers and information security gurus. A grand jury indictment charged Hutchins with creating and distributing malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan.
Such malware infects Web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft. The indictment, filed last month in a Wisconsin federal court, alleges that Hutchins and another defendant — whose name was redacted — conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise the availability of the Kronos malware on Internet forums, sell the malware and profit from it. The indictment also accuses Hutchins of creating the malware.
Authorities said the malware was first made available in early 2014, and “marketed and distributed through AlphaBay, a hidden service on the Tor network.” The US Department of Justice last month announced that the AlphaBay “darknet” marketplace was shut down after an international law enforcement effort. Hutchins’ arraignment was postponed on Thursday in US District Court in Las Vegas by a magistrate judge who gave him until yesterday afternoon to determine if he wants to hire his own lawyer. Hutchins was in Las Vegas for Def Con, an annual cybersecurity conference that ended on Sunday. On Wednesday, Hutchins made comments on Twitter that suggested he was at an airport getting ready to board a plane for a flight home. He never left Nevada.
Jake Williams, a respected cybersecurity researcher, said he found it difficult to believe Hutchins is guilty. The two men have worked on various projects, including training material for higher education for which the Briton declined payment. “He’s a stand-up guy,” Williams said in a text chat. “I can’t reconcile the charges with what I know about him.” A justice department spokesman confirmed the 22-year-old Hutchins was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas. Officer Rodrigo Pena, a police spokesman in Henderson, near Las Vegas, said Hutchins spent the night in federal custody in the city lockup.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../05/2003675975
U.S. judge sets $30,000 bail for famed British cyber expert
August 4, 2017 - A U.S. judge in Law Vegas set a $30,000 bail on Friday for a famed British cyber security researcher accused of advertising and selling malicious code used to pilfer banking and credit card information.
Related:Marcus Hutchins, 23, gained international celebrity status within the hacker community in May when he was credited with neutralizing the global "WannaCry" ransomware attack. His attorney, Adrian Lobo, told reporters he would not be released on Friday because the clerk's office for the court closed before his defense team could post the bail.
Judge Nancy Koppe dismissed a federal prosecutor's claim that Hutchins was a flight risk. If released, Hutchins will be barred from computer use or internet access. Hutchins was "doing well, considering what's gone on," his defense attorney, Adrian Lobo, told reporters.
She said it was "unexpected in (Hutchins') mind to ever be in this situation." News of Hutchins' arrest on Wednesday shocked other researchers, many of whom rallied to his defense and said they did not believe he had ever engaged in cyber crime.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-au...-idUSKBN1AJ367
WannaCry ransom money is on the move
Aug. 3, 2017 -- The hackers behind May's WannaCry cyberattack have moved the ransom money they accumulated from three bitcoin accounts to other, larger accounts, online tracking records show.
The WannaCry attack paralyzed business and government computer systems across the world by exploiting security flaws first unearthed by the National Security Agency. Among the groups hardest hit were the Spanish telecom giant Telefonica and Britain's health ministry. Hospitals in Britain were forced to turn away patients for multiple days while officials scrambled to regain control of their computer systems. Though the hackers, who are believed to have ties to North Korea, succeeded in upending cybersecurity systems across the world, their efforts to turn it into a money-making scheme largely failed due to their own ineptitude.
For starters, though bitcoin transactions are public, they are also anonymous. The three accounts the hackers set up to receive ransom payments from victims were unable to track who had made the payments, meaning the decryption codes the hackers promised were unreliable, making it less likely victims would be willing to pay the ransom in the first place. Other basic coding errors made some of the system take-overs easily remedied. In another twist, the hackers set up a free email account to communicate with victims that was almost immediately identified by the service provider and shut down.
A programer shows a sample of a ransomware cyberattack on a laptop in May. The hackers behind the WannaCry cyberattack have moved the ransom money from three bitcoin accounts to larger accounts.
In all, the hackers received about $140,000 in ransom money in the form of bitcoin payments. Even that payment was inflated due to the rising value of bitcoin in the months since the WannaCry attack. At the time, they received less than $100,000 in ransom payments. International trackers set up a Twitter account to monitor and report any movement in the three accounts the hackers used. On Thursday, that account noted the accounts were drained and the bitcoins were transferred into larger joint accounts known as mixers. Though the bitcoin can still be tracked, mixers allow users to break up bitcoin transactions into smaller ones that are more difficult to trace.
Europol, the European investigative agency, declined to comment on the status of the WannaCry investigation. The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to comment. On Thursday, authorities in Las Vegas arrested Marcus Hutchins, a British computer security researcher responsible for stopping May's WannaCry attack. An indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Wisconsin accused him of distributing the banking malware known as Kronos between July 2014 and July 2015, USA Today reported. Hutchins was in Las Vegas for two computer security conferences -- Black Hat and Defcon.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...&utm_medium=14