British Cyber Expert Pleads Guilty to Creating Malware

Marcus Hutchins, a British cybersecurity expert during an interview in Ilfracombe, England, on May 15, 2017. Frank Augstein/File via AP

MILWAUKEE—A British cybersecurity researcher credited with stopping a worldwide computer virus has pleaded guilty to developing malware to steal banking information.

Federal prosecutors in Wisconsin and Marcus Hutchins’ attorneys said in a joint court filing Friday that the 24-year-old agreed to plead guilty to developing malware called Kronos and conspiring to distribute it from 2012 to 2015. In exchange for his plea to those charges, prosecutors dismissed eight more.