‘Malware creator has too much freedom, may skip bail’
MILWAUKEE: A British security researcher charged in the United States with creating malware used to hack banking systems has too much freedom while awaiting trial and may skip the country, government prosecutors warned a judge.
Marcus Hutchins, 23, is credited with stopping a devastating cyberattack in May, but according to the US, he also helped create and distribute Kronos, a malicious Trojan virus that steals usernames and passwords for banking websites from infected computers. He was arrested in Las Vegas on August 2.
Hutchins was allowed out of jail on August 14 on a US$30,000 (RM128,275) cash bond and confined to a halfway house in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, a magistrate judge lifted some of the bail restrictions at the request of pretrial court officials, giving Hutchins more freedom.
“Hutchins is a foreign national with no ties to the US and his current conditions of bond increase the likelihood of nonappearance in this matter,” said prosecutor Michael Chmelar in a letter to US District judge J.P. Stadtmueller on Friday.
“Hutchins could leave his residence at 6am, travel anywhere in the US, including to the US/Mexican border, without raising any concerns, until 9pm when/if he failed to return to his temporary residence,” said Chmelar.
Lawyers for Hutchins later responded that there was no risk he would try to flee. They said he would agree to a requirement that he get prior approval from court officials before going to any airports in the greater Los Angeles area.
“While the government’s motion expresses concern that Hutchins might have a greater opportunity to leave the country if he is placed on curfew, the government does not even mention the fact that Hutchins’ movements are currently monitored via GPS,” said the attorneys.
Hutchins, who blogs and tweets under the pseudonym MalwareTech, was arrested as he was about to board a flight to the United Kingdom after attending the Black Hat and Def Con conferences in Las Vegas.
Under the terms of his initial bond, he could travel within the continental US and was allowed access to a computer, phone and the Internet, court records show. The federal magistrate also allowed Hutchins “to continue his work as a cyber security researcher and expert”.
Those limitations remained in place until last week, when pretrial court officials complained the restrictions were “unfair” because Hutchins was only permitted to leave his residence for four hours a week. Bloomberg