U.S. Seeks to Curb Freedom of Cyber-Crook, or Hero, Hutchins

A British security researcher charged in the U.S. with creating malware used to hack banking systems has too much freedom while awaiting trial and may skip the country, government prosecutors warned a judge, according to Bloomberg.

Marcus Hutchins, 23, is credited with stopping a devastating cyberattack in May, but according to the U.S. he helped create and distribute Kronos, a malicious Trojan virus that steals usernames and passwords for banking websites from infected computers. He was arrested in Las Vegas on Aug. 2.

Hutchins was allowed out of jail on Aug. 14 on a $30,000 cash bond and confined to a halfway house in Los Angeles. On Thursday a magistrate judge lifted some of the bail restrictions at the request of pretrial court officials, giving Hutchins more freedom to move around. Prosecutors weren’t notified of the request and complained.

Lawyers for Hutchins later responded that there is no risk he will try to flee. They said he would agree to a requirement that he get prior approval from court officials before going to any airports in the greater Los Angeles area. Under the terms of his initial bond, he could travel within the continental U.S. and was allowed access to a computer, phone and the Internet, court records show. The federal magistrate also allowed Hutchins "to continue his work as a cyber security researcher and expert.

Those limitations remained essentially in place until last week when pretrial court officials complained the restrictions were "unfair" because Hutchins was only permitted to leave his residence for four hours a week. He had become a prisoner of his own home, or halfway house, they said.