Marcus Hutchins – The man who stopped WannaCry ransomware

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“It is the right thing to do.” This is what the young British computer expert, Marcus Hutchins who stopped the WannaCry ransomware cyber attack told the reporters. Marcus was doing his first face-to-face interview said that he does not consider himself to be a hero because he fights malware as he believes it is the right thing to do.

Marcus Hutchins works for Los Angeles-based Kryptos Logic, told that a team of hundreds of computer experts worked together in order to stop the dangerous cyber attack which paralyzed computers and locked their important files all over the world, in about 150 countries.

Marcus Hutchins worked for three days to stop the virus.

Speaking to the press he said that he is definitely not a hero and he is doing his bit to stop such threats.

The 22-year-old techie hails from the south coast of England was credited with discovering the so-called “kill switch” which slowed down the bizarre outbreak on Friday. He then fought the worm that paralyzed the computer systems all around the world for the next three days.

wanna cry virus attacked those systems which were running on the older version of Microsoft Windows. It encrypts the user’s files and displays a message which demands a ransom between $300 to $600 in order to release them. If the user does not pay the required amount, it would leave the data damaged permanently.

Marcus Hutchins is now a celebrity in the tech world.

Marcus told how he found a way to stop the ransomware attack. While he was analyzing a sample of the vicious code he noticed that it was linked to a web address which was unregistered. He quickly registered the domain something he normally does to find ways to track or stop cyber threats. He found that the worm had stopped from spreading.

CEO of Kryptos Logic, Salim Neino told that Marcus saved not only the United States from the attack but also the rest of the world from further damage. He said that it was a very exciting moment when they found out that there a “kill switch” that could stop this attack. Marcus Hutchins himself confirmed it.

For the record I don’t “fear for my safety”, I’m just unhappy with trying to help clear up Friday’s mess with the dorbell going constantly.

— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) May 15, 2017

He said the company could not identify “Patient Zero,” which was the first system to be infected. It would give more information who was the real face of these attacks. He further said that the worm was badly designed and unsophisticated.

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Kryptos Logic fights online threats for government agencies, companies and individuals around the world. Hutchins is a part of a huge global community which watches over online threats and prevents them from causing damage. They often share the information on twitter. They often use aliases in order to ensure their privacy so that they remain safe from retaliatory attacks.

Warning for Monday: If you turn on a system without the MS17-010 patch and TCP port 445 open, your system can be ransomwared.

— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) May 15, 2017

Marcus’ twitter handle had a profile photo of a pouty-faced cat wearing large sunglasses under the name  MalwareTech. But with his latest act has made him a hero all over the world which means that more people recognize him now. His mother who is a nurse was proud of his son and was happy about the fact that people now know about her son and acknowledges his efforts.

Hutchins is in touch with British national cyber security officials as well as the FBI. But for now, Marcus plans to go for a vacation to Las Vegas and California.

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