Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 17 May 2018
Cyber expert seeks to suppress statements in malware case

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A British outbreak of the WannaCry
cybersecurity expert credit- virus, which crippled com-
ed with stopping the world- puters worldwide, encrypt-
wide WannaCry computer ing files and making them
virus was headed to court inaccessible unless people
Wednesday for a hearing paid a ransom ranging
about statements pros- from $300 to $600.
ecutors say he made in a Hutchins' attorney Brian
recorded jailhouse phone Klein did not respond to
call acknowledging that an email Tuesday seeking
code he wrote wound up comment. Assistant U.S. At-
in malware. A grand jury torney Michael Chmelar
indictment accuses Mar- said he couldn't comment.
cus Hutchins of creating In the jailhouse call, which
and distributing malware Hutchins was told was be-
known as Kronos, designed ing recorded, he said he
to steal banking passwords. "used to write malware"
Hutchins, 23, has pleaded years before.
not guilty. During the jailhouse call,
Federal prosecutors in Mil- Hutchins also said he repaid
waukee want to introduce a debt of about $5,000 by
as evidence statements giving someone logs that
he made to an unidenti- had the compiled binary
fied person hours after FBI This May 15, 2017, file photo shows British cybersecurity expert Marcus Hutchins during an inter- of the code he created
agents detained him in Las view in Ilfracombe, England. for the person who used it
Vegas before he boarded Associated Press for banking malware. He
a flight home to England said both happened when
last year. The statements be suppressed, along with neys have argued Hutchins Hutchins' arrest last August he was about 18."I knew it
are included in a transcript a two-hour FBI interview. didn't fully understand Mi- came as a shock because was always going to come
filed in court Tuesday, on Prosecutors have said randa warnings because only four months earlier he back," Hutchins said on
the eve of the hearing Hutchins also made incrimi- he's a foreigner and was was lauded as a cyber- the call, adding that he
where Hutchins will ask for nating statements during also sleep-deprived after a crime-fighting hero for find- didn't "think it would be so
the phone conversation to the FBI interview. His attor- week partying in Vegas. ing a "kill switch" to slow the soon."q
Car data: Utah Tesla driver had hands off wheel before crash

By JULIAN HATTEM seconds before the crash, ers of semi-autonomous
Associated Press let go of the wheel 2 sec- vehicles must remain alert
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A onds later and then didn't and in control of the vehi-
Utah driver turned on the touch the wheel again cle at all times.
semi-autonomous func- before hitting the truck at Tesla's Autopilot relies on a
tions of her Tesla vehicle 60 mph (97 kph). She had system of radar, cameras
and then didn't touch the previously told police that with 360-degree visibility
steering wheel again for 80 she had engaged the sys- and sensors to detect near-
seconds before slamming tem and was looking at her by objects and perform ba-
into a firetruck stopped phone to compare route sic functions such as park-
at a red light last week, a maps when the accident ing and steering.
summary of data from the occurred. The features include emer-
car released Wednesday The driver, who suffered gency braking, which Tesla
showed. The National High- a broken foot in the acci- advertises as being able
way Traffic Safety Adminis- dent, has not been identi- to "detect objects and au-
tration has sent its special fied. She was issued a traf- tomatically apply brakes
crash investigations team fic infraction for failing to to help avoid or lessen im-
to the state, the agency keep proper lookout. pact." Tesla says the system
said as details about the The driver of the firetruck is not designed to avoid a
Friday evening crash be- was checked for whiplash collision and warns drivers
came public Wednesday. injuries but did not go to not to rely on it entirely.
According to South Jordan the hospital. It's unclear if that system
police's summary of techni- In a statement Wednes- activated before the Utah
cian findings, the 28-year- day, Tesla said that drivers crash. According to the
old driver had repeatedly are repeatedly warned to summary released by po-
enabled and disabled the keep their hands on the lice, the driver pressed on
Autopilot features of her wheel and maintain con- the brake herself "frac-
Tesla Model S throughout trol of their vehicle at all tions of a second prior to
the course of her drive. times. the crash" and the vehicle
She took her hands off the "Tesla has always been had not slowed down from
In this Friday, May 11, 2018, photo released by the South Jor- wheel more than a dozen clear that Autopilot doesn't the speed she had set for
dan Police Department shows a traffic collision involving a Tesla times, twice for more than make the car impervious cruise control.
Model S sedan with a Fire Department mechanic truck stopped a minute each. to all accidents," the state- The NTSB said it has not
at a red light in South Jordan, Utah. The driver re-enabled Au- ment said. South Jordan opened an investigation
Associated Press
topilot 1 minute and 22 police reiterated that driv- into the Utah crash.q