At the beginning of May this year a massive ransomware outbreak happened effecting hundreds of thousands of computers and networks across the globe. Well today it's been widely reported that he was arrested in the U.S. by the FBI.

23-year-old Marcus Hutchins single-handedly helped to save the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) and other organizations from cyber criminals WannaCry ransomware attack. After being doxxed by the UK tabloids he was heralded as a hero by many.

UK tabloids doxxed the ‘hero’ hacker who stopped a global cyberattack - The Outline - 05/15/2017

Last week, a debilitating computer virus now known as WannaCry spread across networks at hospitals, banks, and other organizations all around the world until it was stopped by a young security researcher working out of his bedroom.

Now, journalists have published his name against his will, bringing him unwanted attention and sending a signal to privacy-sensitive researchers that no good deed goes unpunished.

“because it just doesn’t make sense to give out my personal information, obviously we’re working against bad guys and they’re not going to be happy about this.”

Hutchins was arrest in the U.S. whilst attending the popular hacking conference Def-Con held in Las Vegas, Nevada. When the news of his arrest was first reported it was unclear as to why he was arrested. It now appears he was arrested in connection with advertising and selling the banking malware Kronos.

Cyber researcher arrested on charges related to Kronos malware: filing | Reuters - 08/03/2017

A British-based computer researcher has been arrested by U.S. authorities on charges that he conspired to advertise and sell Kronos banking malware, a court filing unsealed on Thursday showed.

Marcus Hutchins was detained in Las Vegas this week after attending the annual Def Con hacking conference. He is widely credited with helping to neutralize the global "WannaCry" ransomware attack earlier this year. A U.S. official said his case was unrelated to the WannaCry attack.

New banking malware 'Kronos' advertised on underground forums | PC World - 07/14/2014

A new Trojan program designed to steal log-in credentials and other financial information from online banking websites is being advertised to cyber-criminal groups on the underground market.

Now it may just be a coincidence but today, around the same time as the news broke, the hackers behind the WannaCry ransomware started to drain their Bitcoin wallet. According to the twitter bot set up to monitor the Bitcoin address the last payment received was on 07/24/2017 making a total of 52.19666422 BTC ($144,967.04) from 338 payments.

The hackers behind the WannaCry ransomware attack have finally cashed out | Quartz - 07/14/2017

Since the attack, that $140,000 sat untouched, spread across the three bitcoin wallets where victims were instructed to send their ransom payments. Few expected the money would ever move out of the accounts, as they were surely watched by law-enforcement agencies around the world. But on Wednesday night, the money began to move.

https://twitter.com/actual_ransom

It's all either a huge coincidence or there is something a lot more complex going on. It'll be interesting to see how this one pans out int he next few weeks.

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