indo-asian news service
San Francisco, August 5: The 23-year-old British cyber security expert who was arrested in the US on charges of banking malware fraud has been granted bail under conditions that he pay $30,000 and not leave the country.
However, Marcus Hutchins who was hailed as a hero after he discovered a ‘kill switch’ that put brakes on the fast-spreading ‘WannaCrypt” ransomware in May, has to stay in jail till Monday “because there wasn’t enough time to post bail after Friday’s afternoon ruling,” The Washington Post reported late on Friday, quoting his lawyer. Hutchins is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Milwaukee August 8. If found guilty, he could face a maximum 40 years in prison in the US.
“The indictment is remarkably shallow even by indictment standards, which is disappointing because it adds considerable uncertainty and fosters distrust with the general security community,” Nicholas Weaver, computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, was quoted as saying. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital leading civil liberties non-profit organisation, said it helped arrange Hutchins counsel and was working to find him an attorney to provide “the best possible defense,” the report added.