The man who accidentally saved the world from the NHS cyber attack | The Independent

Marcus Hutchins, a 22-year-old self-taught computer whizz, inadvertently saved the NHS from a wide-scale cyber attack. Exploring the WannaCry malware that was causing havoc within hospitals across England, Hutchins was puzzled by the software referencing a non-existent URL. Hutchins bought the URL to monitor the ransomware’s spread and realised this action killed the malware that had ensnared computers globally. The young analyst works from home and is employed by a private cyber security company.