Bail of $30000 set for UK cyber expert Marcus Hutchins
August 5, 2017 by admin
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Marcus Hutchins wanted to remain anonymous after the WannaCry outbreak, but his identity was revealed
US prosecutors say a British computer expert has admitted to creating software that harvests bank details.
But Marcus Hutchins’ own lawyer says he denies six charges of creating and distributing the Kronos malware.
The 23-year-old from Ilfracombe, Devon, who helped stall the WannaCry cyber-attack which hit the NHS, was arrested on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
He was granted $30,000 (£23,000) bail, but will spend the weekend in prison after not being able to pay on Friday.
As he left the courtroom Mr Hutchins was ordered to walk with his hands behind his back but he was not shackled.
No members of his family were present in court but defence lawyer Adrian Lobo presented the judge with a bundle of letters.
She said they were from friends and relatives showing support for a client who had never been in trouble with the law in the US or the UK.
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Ms Lobo told the BBC: “He’s pled not guilty. He is standing by that and he fights the charges and we intend to fight the case in Wisconsin.”
She described the federal indictment against him as “pretty flimsy, it’s pretty slim compared to what we normally see in a United States indictment.”
Prosecutors told a Las Vegas court on Friday that Mr Hutchins had been caught in a sting operation when undercover officers bought the code.
They claimed the software was sold for $2,000 in digital currency in June 2015.
Dan Cowhig, prosecuting, also told the court that Mr Hutchins had made a confession during a police interview.
“He admitted he was the author of the code of Kronos malware and indicated he sold it,” said Mr Cowhig.
The lawyer claimed there was evidence of chat logs between Mr Hutchins and an unnamed co-defendant – who has yet to be arrested – where the security researcher complained of not receiving a fair share of the money.
At the scene
By James Cook, BBC North America correspondent
There was no missing Marcus Hutchins as he was brought into courtroom 3C of the US District Court in Las Vegas.
The “surfer who saved the world” was wearing a bright yellow custody-issue T-shirt and trousers along with luminous orange socks and sandals.
Judge Nancy Kobbe was sympathetic to the defendant’s plea to be released on bail, waving away a claim from a government lawyer that the cyber-security expert posed a risk to the public because he had gone shooting on a gun range popular with tourists.
Mr Hutchins was so softly spoken that several times Ms Kobbe had to ask him to raise his voice.
Ms Lobo said Mr Hutchins denied he was the author of the malware and said he would plead not guilty to all of the charges, which date between July 2014 and July 2015.
“He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not trying to harm people,” she said. “Use the internet for good is what he has done.
“He was completely shocked, this isn’t’ something he anticipated. He came here for a work-related conference and he was fully anticipating to go back home and had no reason to be fearful of coming or going from the United States.”
Mr Hutchins came to prominence in May this year after finding a “kill switch” to stop the WannaCry ransomeware attack that hit the NHS, as well as other organisations in 150 countries.
Also known as “MalwareTech” online, Mr Hutchins was hailed as an “accidental hero” after registering a domain name to track the spread of the virus, which actually ended up halting it.
Mr Hutchins, who works for Los Angeles-based computer security firm Kryptos Logi, had been in Las Vegas to attend the Black Hat and Def Con cyber-security conferences.
He was arrested at Las Vegas airport minutes before he was due to fly home.
District judge Nancy Koppe, who was presented letters of support from Mr Hutchins’ cyber-security colleagues, ordered his release on bail as he had no criminal history and because the allegations dated back two years.
However, friends and family were unable to raise the bond money before the court closed on Friday, so he will not be released until Monday.
The conditions of his bail include him not being allowed to access the internet and to stay in Clark County, Nevada, and within the Eastern District of Wisconsin, where he will appear in court on Tuesday.
He must also be monitored by GPS and surrender his passport.
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UN vote Saturday on US bid to slash North Korea exports over missile tests
August 5, 2017 by admin
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a U.S.-drafted resolution that aims to slash by a third North Korea’s $3 billion annual export revenue over Pyongyang’s two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in July.
A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a “high confidence” that North Korea ally China and Russia would support the draft resolution, which was circulated to the 15 Security Council members on Friday.
The council is due to vote at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT). A resolution needs nine votes in favor, and no vetoes by the United States, China, Russia, France or Britain, to be adopted.
The draft resolution would ban North Korea’s exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. It would also prohibit countries from increasing the current numbers of North Korean laborers working abroad, ban new joint ventures with North Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures.
“These are export sectors where this money is viewed as a critical, critical source of hard currency that the North immediately turns around into its fantastically expensive war machine and these just amazingly expensive ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs,” the diplomat said.
“These sanctions are not targeted at the people of North Korea,” the diplomat said.
u.s. Pressure on China
Related Coverage
The draft resolution would also add nine individuals and four entities to the U.N. blacklist, including North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank, subjecting them to a global asset freeze and travel ban.
The United States and China have been negotiating the draft text for the past month. Typically, they agree sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and Washington has threatened to impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang.
“The Trump administration should issue new sanctions against China at the same time the new resolution is adopted as Beijing is still violating U.S. law by allowing its companies, individuals, and banks to facilitate North Korea’s sanctions evasion,” said Anthony Ruggiero, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow and former U.S. Treasury official.
China has also been upset by possible moves by the Trump administration to exert trade pressure on Beijing.
“(The draft) appears to reflect a compromise between the U.S. and China in several areas,” Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. “It notably does not include any reduction in Chinese crude oil shipments to North Korea.”
While supportive of new U.N. action, Security Council member Sweden said sanctions alone could not solve the problem.
“More creative diplomacy is urgently needed. A long-term solution can only be achieved through dialogue and negotiations,” said Sweden’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Carl Skau.
u.s. Vs Russia
The United States had been informally keeping Britain and France in the loop on the bilateral negotiations, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said China had been sharing the draft and negotiating with Russia.
It has not been clear if poor relations between Russia and the United States, which imposed new unilateral sanctions on Moscow on Wednesday, would hamper negotiations.
Moscow has disagreed with assessments by Western powers that Pyongyang launched two long-range missiles, saying they were mid-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions.
North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches.
The U.N. diplomat said North Korea has been estimated to earn in 2017 $400 million from coal, $251 million from iron and iron ore, $113 million from lead and lead ore and $295 million from seafood. The diplomat said it was difficult to estimate how much North Korea was earning from sending workers abroad.
A United Nations human rights investigator said in 2015 that North Korea has forced more than 50,000 people to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, earning the country between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year for the government.
Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish and Mary Milliken