Remember the 22-year-old who stopped the WannaCry ransomware attack. Some people easily called him an accidental hero but we kind of disagree. Marcus Hutchins who goes by the name of Malware Tech on the internet managed to stop the biggest ransomware attack in the history with some intelligent tinkering and buying a garbled domain name. The domain only cost him $10.69 but soon after he bought it, the affected computers began to connect with the URL, and people could access their files in a few hours time.
Hutchins is a British cyber security researcher who failed his Information Technology course in high school due to hacking accusations. HackerOne rewarded the hacker $10,000 for his contribution to the ransomware solution, but he decided to give it to charity commenting, “I plan on holding a vote to decide which charities will get the majority of the money. The rest will go to buying books/resources for people looking to get into infosec who can’t afford them.”
You would think the man lost $10 only to get $10,000 richer but the money and fame are not all that was brought to Marcus. Like an extremely famous celebrity, Marcus Hutchins was bombarded by the media trying to obtain his personal details.
You might think being famous is really cool but Marcus completely disagrees.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/865937835643285506
And yeah, media’s ethics for respecting people’s privacy? Yes, there are none.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/865938742103724034
Life online sucks when you want to stay in hiding.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/865234816517775360
Some were decent enough to turn up after an invite though.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/865220542735036417
Who said he did not stay optimistic?
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/867032632059715585
And he is pretty decent about his fame.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/866342028711518209
Marcus has also announced what charities will be getting his reward money.
https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/866377522518392832
