Marcus Hutchins, known to have arrested WannaCry, pleads guilty in a bank malware case

To summarize: Marcus Hutchins was arrested in 2017 for developing the banking malware Kronos. Later, he faces several other charges, including those related to UPAS malware and FBI lies. All in all, Hutchins was hit with ten criminal charges, but a plea agreement will see the failing security researcher failing to plead guilty only to two counts of indictment.

Marcus Hutchins, known online as MalwareTechpleaded guilty to two out of ten counts of bank malware. Hutchins became an overnight sensation after mastering the virulent attack of the malicious WannaCry program, and was hailed as the "WannaCry Hero".

In August 2017, a few months after mastering WannaCry, Hutchins was arrested in Las Vegas after leaving the Black Hat and Def Con security conferences. He was accused of having developed the banking Trojan Kronos. As a result of the indictment, he was then charged with a second malicious program called UPAS Kit, as well as having lied to the FBI.

"As you may know, I pleaded guilty to two counts of writing malicious programs in the years before my career in the security industry," Hutchins wrote in a statement. press release published on its website. "I regret these acts and accept full responsibility for my mistakes, having grown up, I have since been using the same skills that I used abusively several years ago for constructive purposes. I will continue to devote my time to protecting people from malware attacks. "

In a plea agreement, Hutchins pled guilty to two of the following ten counts: one was intended to distribute Kronos and the other a conspiracy. For each charge, Hutchins incurs up to 5 years in prison and $ 250,000 fine. Hutchins has not yet been sentenced, and it is unclear when his sentence will be handed down.