Researcher held in Vegas

A British security researcher, who became an Internet hero after he was credited with stopping a malicious software attack this year, was arrested at the Las Vegas airport and charged in connection with a separate attack.

Marcus Hutchins, the researcher, was widely praised for identifying a way to disable the WannaCry malware attack that seized hundreds of thousands of computers. Researchers credited Hutchins’ discovery of a kill switch in the malware for stopping its spread and preventing the attack from infecting millions more computers.

According to an indictment in federal court in Milwaukee on Thursday, Hutchins and an accomplice created and sold malware intended to steal login information and other financial data from online banking sites. The pair conspired to sell and distribute the malware program, known as the Kronos banking trojan, around 2014 and 2015, the indictment said.

The Justice Department said that a grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Hutchins last month after a two-year investigation.

Motherboard reported that Hutchins had been detained at the Las Vegas airport after a week of attending a security conference in the city. He had been scheduled to fly back to his home in the United Kingdom.

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