Marcus Hutchins, digital security researcher for Kryptos Logic, poses for a photograph in front of his computer in his bedroom in Ilfracombe, U.K., on Tuesday, July 4, 2017. Hutchins, the 23-year-old who saved the world from a devastating cyberattack in May was asleep in his bed in the English seaside town of Ilfracombe last week after a night of partying when another online extortion campaign spread across the globe. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
SAN FRANCISCO/LAS VEGAS: A cybersecurity researcher widely credited with helping to neutralise the global "WannaCry" ransomware attack earlier this year has been arrested on unrelated hacking charges, according to court documents unsealed on Aug 3.
Marcus Hutchins, a 23-year-old British-based malware researcher who gained attention in May for detecting a "kill switch" that effectively disabled the WannaCry worm, was detained by the FBI in Las Vegas on Wednesday, a US Justice Department spokesman said. He was among tens of thousands of hackers who had descended on the city during the annual Black Hat and Def Con conventions.
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