DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan-based cybersecurity researcher who helped halt a global cyberattack says he's happy the outbreak was stopped fairly quickly, but he's worried about another attack in the coming days.
Darien Huss is a 28-year-old research engineer for the cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. A graduate of Purdue University in Indiana, Huss discovered a "kill switch" on Friday in the malware used in a cyberextortion scheme that was quickly spreading around the world.
Huss shared the information with a British researcher, known as Malware Tech, who had unexpectedly stopped the malware's spread by registering a domain name.
Huss told The Associated Press on Saturday he's thankful it wasn't someone "with malicious intent" who discovered how to stop the attack. But he says it wouldn't be difficult for those responsible to re-release it or for others to mimic it.
