LOS ANGELES, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Marcus Hutchins, a young British cybersecurity expert who helped shut down the WannaCry ransomware attack in May, was still being held Monday at a U.S. lockup in Nevada, a day before he's to face charges in federal court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hutchins remains at the Southern Nevada Detention Center on Monday, about 100 km outside Las Vegas, local media cited Kayla Gieni, a spokeswoman of the facility, as saying.
The 23-year-old young computer expert is scheduled to appear Tuesday morning in federal court in Milwaukee on six counts of hacking-related charges from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), including conspiracy to commit computer fraud in 2014 and 2015. He is accused of creating, distributing and selling malicious software called Kronos, commonly referred to as a "banking Trojan", according to a legal document from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Hutchins was arrested by the FBI on Aug. 2 after attending the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas which took place last week, according to the website MotherBoard.
If found guilty, Hutchins could face a maximum of roughly 40 years in jail in the United States for writing and spreading a malicious software that targeted bank accounts, according to local media reports.
The judge at Las Vegas court ruled on Friday that Hutchins could be released on a 30,000-U.S. dollar bail, saying the defendant wasn't a danger to the community nor a flight risk, though the judge ordered him to remain in the United States with GPS monitoring.
Hutchins has pleaded not guilty to charges of creating and distributing the infamous Kronos banking malware, according to Adrian Lobo, Hutchins' defence attorney.
"We intend to fight the case," Lobo said on Facebook Live to local reporter Christy Wilcox at the court house, "He has dedicated his life to researching malware, not to try to harm people. He has tremendous community support, local and abroad and in the computer world."
The Kronos malware, which is spread through malicious email attachments, can be used to steal banking passwords and other credentials from infected computers.
Hutchins, known as MalwareTech on Twitter, is quite active online, but no tweet has been posted on his account @MalwareTechBlog since Aug. 2.
"I can confirm @MalwareTechBlog was detained yesterday and FBI/U.S. Marshalls won't tell me where he is," Andrew Mabbitt, a cyber security company founder and Hutchins' friend, tweeted on Aug. 3, saying that he does not believe the charges against Hutchins.
"He spent his career stopping malware, not writing it," tweeted Mabbitt.
Hutchins was hailed a hero in May for discovering a "kill switch" for the WannaCry ransomware to delay its global spreading as it infected and forced hospitals, telecom providers and many other businesses worldwide to shut down.
The WannaCry ransomware encrypted files of hundreds of thousands of computers and then charged victims Bitcoins worth 300 to 600 dollars as ransom.
On the night of Aug. 2, right after Hutchins' detention, the hackers behind the global WannaCry ransomware attack abruptly cashed out all their ransom payments within 15 minutes, though there is no indication that the two events are connected.
