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Sunday, April 08, 2007

UFO-Seeking British Hacker May Face US Trial

A British UFO enthusiast who hacked into U.S. military computers in 2001 and 2002 lost his extradition appeal Tuesday in London's High Court and may face trial in the U.S. Gary McKinnon faces up to 60 years in prison after he was charged with hacking into 97 U.S. military and NASA computers in the hopes of finding secret data on UFOs.

McKinnon admits to using "RemotelyAnywhere" software to hack into the government computers, but he maintains he never did any harm. The U.S. government, however, says he caused US$700,000 in damages and the shutdown of critical military computers.

The intrusions, which are considered one of the largest cyberattacks on the U.S. government, came in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Tuesday's news was the result of McKinnon's second challenge to U.S. extradition orders. The first such order came in May 2006, and McKinnon's attorney fought that order on the grounds that McKinnon could be treated as a terrorism suspect if forced to stand trial in the United States. John Reid, U.K. Home Secretary, approved the extradition order, however, and so McKinnon appealed again.

"This is a sad situation for a hacker," technology attorney Raymond Van Dyke told TechNewsWorld. "His timing, around 9/11 and its aftermath, and very sensitive targets, numerous military computer systems no less, were serious transgressions.

"The laws have become quite strict in recent years on computer intrusions," cybercrime lawyer Parry Aftab told TechNewsWorld. "We have to take these crimes seriously and recognize that what may sound funny is just an indication of how seriously computer intrusions can affect our security and financial well-being.

"The international angle doesn't make any difference," Aftab added. "A lot of people think that because a crime was perpetrated in cyberspace, special issues arise. But it's still breaking a law."

Labels: Gary McKinnon, hacking, John Reid, Parry Aftab, Raymond Van Dyke, UFO

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

UFO ‘secrets’ could land UK hacker in Gitmo

A UK hacker who broke into dozens of US military computers to find secret evidence of alien life and technology faces up to 70 years in a US prison.

The 40-year-old unemployed systems administrator faces charges of attacking 97 US military and NASA computers between 2001 and 2002. If found guilty, he could face up to 70 years in prison and may even be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist suspect.

Gary McKinnon will lodge what is likely to be his final appeal against extradition on February 13 next year at London's Court of Appeal. He lost his first appeal against extradition in a High Court hearing last July, but was given leave to take his case to a higher court. If that fails to overturn the extradition order signed by UK Home Secretary John Reid in July, McKinnon's only remaining option to avoid a US trial will be to appeal to the House of Lords. McKinnon is not optimistic of his chances following the Lords' refusal to intervene in the extradition of the NatWest Three, who were extradited to the US in July as part of a £11.5m fraud investigation connected with the collapsed energy giant Enron.

McKinnon has admitted accessing computer systems in the US, including those cited in a US indictment against him. He wanted to find evidence of UFOs, antigravity technology and government suppression of ‘Free Energy', all of which he claims to have gained evidence of through his activities.

In an interview with the BBC, McKinnon said he got into the networks quite easily, simply by using a Perl script that searched for blank passwords. Embarrassingly for the US military, that means computers in the top-secret networks could be hacked using active default passwords.

Unsurprisingly, McKinnon wants to be tried in the UK because he says the crimes were committed on UK soil. He also says he did not damage the systems he trespassed on.

Labels: antigravity technology, free energy, Gary McKinnon, hacking, John Reid, NASA, UFO