WannaCry 'hero' to plead not guilty to accusation he wrote banking malware

US prosecutors claim Marcus Hutchins, hailed as 'accidental hero' for stopping major ransomware attack, admitted to creating Kronos malware targeting banks

The British security researcher who stopped a global ransomware attack admitted to police that he wrote the code of a malware that targeted bank accounts, US prosecutors said during a hearing on Friday, but his attorneys said that he planned to plead not guilty.

Marcus Hutchins, the 23-year-old hailed as a hero for stopping the WannaCry ransomware attack, is accused of helping to create, spread and maintain the banking trojan Kronos between 2014 and 2015 and is facing six counts of hacking-related charges from the US Department of Justice (DoJ), according to a recently unsealed indictment.