I am no hero, says computer whiz who beat WannaCry
ILFRACOMBE (England): A young British computer expert credited with cracking the WannaCry cyber attack said he doesn’t consider himself a hero but fights malware because “it’s the right thing to do”.
In his first face-to-face interview, Marcus Hutchins, who works for Los Angeles-based Kryptos Logic, said hundreds of computer experts worked throughout the weekend to fight the virus, which paralysed computers in 150 countries.
“I am definitely not a hero,” he said.
“I am just someone doing my bit to stop botnets.”
The 22-yearold computer whiz from the south coast of
England discovered a so-called “kill switch” that slowed the unprecedented outbreak on Friday. He then spent the next three days fighting the worm that crippled Britain’s hospital network and computer systems around the world.
WannaCry paralysed computers running mostly older versions of Microsoft Windows by encrypting users’ computer files and displaying a message demanding anywhere from US$300 (RM1,290) to US$600 to release them.
Hutchins said he stumbled across the solution when he was analysing a sample of the malicious code and noticed it was linked to an unregistered web address.
He promptly registered the domain and found that stopped the worm from spreading.
Kryptos Logic chief executive officer Salim Neino said the company was not able to identify “Patient Zero”, the first system infected, which would give researchers more information about who was behind the attack. AP