Marcus Hutchins, the British hacker who helped end the ransomware attack on the NHS, is to plead not guilty to six charges relating to the development and sale of banking malware.

Hutchins, 23, told a Las Vegas court he denied the charges despite a prosecutor claiming that he had earlier admitted to the police that he created code used to steal banking details.

The prosecutor, Dan Cowhig, also described Hutchins as a "danger to the public" after he had attended a gun range in Las Vegas and argued that he should not be bailed.

Hutchins' attorney, Adrian Lobo, described this claim as "garbage" and welcomed the judge's decision to allow Hutchins to be released on conditional bail with a $30,000 (£23,000) cash bond which was coming from "a variety of sources".

"He has tremendous community support, local and abroad, and in the computer world. Many people are trying to put money together and raise the amount for the bond," said Ms Lobo.


The hacker, who works for a US-firm called Kryptos Logic from his home in Ilfracombe, will be released on Monday as the clerks' office closed too early after his hearing on Friday.

He will appear in court again on Tuesday, this time in Wisconsin, and is expected to formally enter pleas then.

He was arrested in Las Vegas after attending the Def Con hacking conference and was "completely shocked" by the charges, said Ms Lobo.

Mr Cowhig told the court that Hutchins "admitted he was the author of the code of Kronos malware and indicated he sold it".

The prosecutor added that Hutchins had been caught when undercover officers bought the malware from his unnamed co-defendant on the darknet marketplace AlphaBay.

AlphaBay was the largest criminal marketplace on the dark web until it was shut down by an international police operation in July.

Security researchers sympathetic to Hutchins' case have suggested that he has been framed by this unknown co-defendant.

The hacker had been hailed as a "hero" for helping end the ransomware attack against the NHS in May.

Mr Cowhig said that records of chats between the two co-defendants showed Hutchins complaining about the money he received for the sale of the malware, however.

Court filings accuse Hutchins, known online as MalwareTech, of advertising, distributing and profiting from malicious software called Kronos which stole online banking credentials and credit card data.

Such malware infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank's website or another trusted location.

The suspected activity took place between July 2014 and July 2015, according to the court documents.