Marcus Hutchins, a British cybersecurity researcher credited with helping curb a recent worldwide ransomware attack, is expected in court to hear federal charges accusing him of creating malicious software to steal banking information in 2014.
Hutchins could enter a plea during Monday's hearing in Wisconsin federal court. Prosecutors have charged him and an unnamed co-defendant with conspiring to commit computer fraud in the state and elsewhere. Authorities arrested the 23-year-old man on Aug. 2 in the Las Vegas airport on his way home to Ilfracombe, England, after a cybersecurity convention.
The legal troubles Hutchins faces are a dramatic turnaround from the status of cybercrime-fighting hero he enjoyed four months ago when he found a "kill switch" that slowed the outbreak of WannaCry virus.