He Won Praise for Halting a Global Cyberattack. Then He Was Arrested.<br />SAN FRANCISCO — A British security researcher, who became an internet hero after he was credited with stopping a malicious<br />software attack this year, was arrested at the Las Vegas airport and charged in connection with a separate attack.<br />Mr. Hutchins created the software and his accomplice offered to sell the program, known<br />as the Kronos banking Trojan, for $3,000 on an internet forum, the indictment said.<br />Some warned that claims against Mr. Hutchins could strain the relationship between “white hat” hackers — researchers who look for software vulnerabilities to spot problems<br />and fix them, rather than to commit a crime or sow chaos — and law enforcement.<br />In 2002, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Russian encryption expert in his Las Vegas<br />hotel room after he published software officials said could crack the security of some kinds of e-books.
