IT expert who saved the world global cyber attack fears for his safety
The British security expert who slowed down the spread of WannaCry ransomware attack says he fears for his safety.The 22-year-old IT expert named in report Marcus Hutchins has become an ‘accidental hero’ for his discovery of the virus’s global impact, reports Metro.
The young man is concerned that ‘terrible things’ may be done in retaliation for his efforts. Despite these reports, the IT expert gave assurance on his official Twitter account that he does not “fear for his safety”.
For the record I don't "fear for my safety", I'm just unhappy with trying to help clear up Friday's mess with the dorbell going constantly.
— MalwareTech (@MalwareTechBlog) May 15, 2017
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The young man, who reportedly lives in Devon, was praised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for his part in tackling the ransomware’s propagation around the world.
An international operation is underway to find the perpetrators behind the unprecedented attack that has infected 200,000 machines in 150 countries since Friday.
Speaking to MailOnline, the cyber specialist, who goes by the name MalwareTech online, said: ‘In future, someone might want to retaliate – they could find my identity within seconds.
“If they know where I live, they could really do anything.”
He referred to the case of another security blogger who was subject to intimidation, including death threats after his identity was leaked online.
“I’ve seen posts about the terrible things people have done to him and for me in future it could be the same things,” MalwareTech said.
The online community also pleaded for his identity not to be outed online in order to protect him.
MalwareTech himself wrote: “I always thought I’d be doxed by kids (people in hacking forums), but turns out Journalists are 100x better at doxing.”
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But he added: “I guess the upside is now I can be a selfie queen and live stream because I’ve got no opsec (operations security) left.”
The 22-year-pld became an international sensation after he prevented hundreds of thousands of computers from being infected by the virus that wreaked havoc across the NHS.
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