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You may remember that this is the (allegedly) autistic guy who, a while ago, spent all his time hacking into US military computers, including those of the Pentagon. He said he was looking for evidence of ‘extra terrestrial beings’ and also for evidence of a ‘cover up’…… at least that’s his current excuse anyway. It has been hailed as the biggest military computer hack of all time.
It seems that the Americans have taken a pretty dim view of his activities and weren’t at all amused by the messages he (allegedly) left on their computer systems. Net result is that they intend to extradite him to stand trial in the USA for doing all this.
He has appealed to the High Court; to the House of Lords; to the European Court of Human Rights; and finally to Alan Johnson (the Home Secretary) in his seemingly desperate attempts to avoid extradition and prosecution for the things that the Americans say he has done. All have rejected his appeals and currently Alan Johnson is considering the matter.
Now the question is this …. is the 30+ year old Gary simply an innocent ‘hacker’ who was having a harmless bit of fun at the expense of the US establishment …
or….
is he a highly dangerous computer hacker hell bent on breaking into other people’s computer systems and causing them damage???
The Glaswegian-born systems administrator, who attended Highgate Wood Secondary School in north London, is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002, using the name ‘Solo’. The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force.
The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours, as well as deleting US Navy Weapons logs, rendering a naval base’s network of 300 computers inoperable after the September 11th terrorist attacks. They claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was $700,000.
McKinnon has denied causing any damage, arguing that he accessed open, unsecured machines, and disputes the financial loss claimed by the US as concocted in order to create a dollar amount justifying an extraditable offence. While it did not constitute evidence of destruction, he did admit leaving a threat on one computer:
“US foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days? It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand-down on September 11 last year…I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.”
One of his defences is that he has Asperger’s syndrome. Now, in my view that isn’t a viable defence as there are lots of different grades of the syndrome and most people lead normal existences and hold down jobs.
I do think they should have employed him though, as they obviously need help with security!
Is there such a thing as an innocent hacker?
nope jen jen.. there isn’t! But he did reveal gaping holes in their security! If he had been a consultant they would have paid him millions for that!
what about a hacker whose accused of being a hacker but isnt :?
I think we can assume that he is a hacker! He kind of admitted it and was caught red handed!
And if someone is accused of being a hacker, then they are innocent until proved guilty. Technically.
:wink:
From my reading of the press reports, it appears that his “Asperger’s Syndrome” or his “autism” is a recently discovered reason, put forward as a defence to his being extradited to the United States. You will of course have to form your own conclusions as to whether this is a concocted story to escape justice; or whether he is in fact an innocent person suffering from and driven by some dreadful mind altering illness.
The fact is that he has been accused of causing tremendous amounts of damage to US based computer systems – which fact he doesn’t deny. He has offered an excuse for doing this (the search for establishment cover-ups) but does this REALLY explain why he caused this amount of loss and damage to the US???
In terms of his being a ‘malignant hacker’ …. do you think that there is a comparison between his activities and those of the minority of chatroom users who spend their online time abusing other users and scrolling chatrooms with obscenities etc etc.???
Well it looks as though Alan Johnston (the Home Secretary) has apparently made a sensible decision for once. He has reviewed all the ‘medical evidence’ put before him by the defence team and decided that it is insufficient to justify him refusing the extradition order.
I notice that the so-called ‘autistic’ hacker hasn’t bothered to deny doing this, far from it – he positively glorifies in his hacking exploits – but he uses as an excuse that he was merely looking for evidence of “UFOs”. Yeah right sure he was !!!
The latest press releases from his ‘defenders’ in an attempt to keep him from having to face justice for his self-admitted misdeeds, is that if he is sent to the US “he will commit suicide”. What a cracking defence, one that all criminals can use freely …..”If you proseciute me for my crimes I will kill myself”.
Now we move to Stage 28 – an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Oh and just in case you felt that all this isn’t YOUR problem ….. don’t forget that YOU are all collectively paying for this circus !!
I wonder if he had a sinister plan once in reciept of any crucial info…. 8)
he did what he did what has his condition got to do with anything? its hardly a disabitlity which makes him thick!!…I can’t even hack into my own computer when I forget a password :lol:
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