Wanna Cry: The Weekend Deprivation Of The One Who Stopped It

It is not surprising that the man behind the pseudo MalwareTech is tired. He slept 6 hours in 3 days. The cause of this deprivation is on one side heroic: he is responsible, at 22 years, for stopping the spread of the "ranongongiciel" Wanna Cry which could have been much worse than it was. By purchasing a domain created by hackers, he inadvertently found a way to stop the infection of computers with Microsoft Windows that communicated via this web address with criminals.

But he had not anticipated the other side of the coin: the media's interest in his person. His decision to remain anonymous is real. He does not seek celebrity. But all of this has gone far beyond it when the media such as the Daily Telegraph, the Sun and the Daily Mail collectively unveiled its name and city of residence. Although this information is in the public domain, Forbes will not disclose it here.

This morning, MalwareTech locked himself up at his home to sleep, but some media continue to chase him relentlessly. This morning, in the house where he lives with his parents, they knocked on his door, certainly journalists in bad scoops, especially since it has 3 days now that he stopped Wanna Cry, and few Secrets persist. "I was hoping for something a little more normal, a bit of media interest, but not this ongoing harassment from the world's press," he said.

We even ask his friends to provide information to color their stories a little. The Daily Mail, for example, published a picture of MalwareTech with a friend. She was then hunted down to her house to comment on the news. Others have had the same thing on the Web. One person even claims that a reporter made the fact that he had confirmed the real name of MalwareTech. He also tells that apparently a journalist went to his old school for more details, such as the amazing info that he is a fan of pizza and surf! His parents, less accustomed to the attention of the press than MalwareTech who has previously dealt with them, are a little disturbed but face.

The tsunami of people seeking information about him or his work was impressive. He says he received about 3,000 emails and responded live to thousands of Twitter messages. Just from the BBC, which has a myriad of local and national offices, it has received hundreds of requests. "It's a lot of stress ... I'm delighted to have stopped the rançongiciel, but the glory, it does not satisfy me. "

For now, he planned to sleep a bit because others are working on the prevention of a new cyber attack of Wana Cry which targeted 48 hospitals in the United Kingdom and factories Renault and Nissan among others. It is also planned for holidays. So, by a stroke of the fate, the man in the front line against the attacks, is now forced to withdraw, because of an overzealous press that wanted to advertise with his work. Instead of being famous, he is harassed.

But even this irony has been lost in some newspapers like the Mail, which announced in its publication Metro, that MalwareTech was worried about his safety because his identity was unveiled. He fears that, having been unmasked, he may be the target of the criminals of Wanna Cry. This same article contains his name, many photos of his face taken close up, as well as photos of the inside of his house.

This is not the first time MalwareTech has helped combat massive attacks. Forbes has already used his work in past articles, notably during the Mirai viral epidemic that caused internet stops around the world.

At least those who do their best to combat viral outbreaks are not as concerned about who is behind the MalwareTech mask. Matthew Suiche, the founder of the security company Comae Technologies, did similar work by purchasing domains used by other variants of the attack and closed them. "I do not care if he's Madonna or not," Suiche said. "Tell them to persecute me, I want more followers than Grugq" (he is a security expert who has 75,000 followers on twitter).

Unmasking the identity of criminal hackers is understandable, even desirable. But do the same to the hackers who quietly try to save the internet every day? Most people in the community find it unacceptable.