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Well, it was perhaps inevitable: British “UFO Computer Hacker” Gary Mckinnon may be in the final stages of his time as a free man.
As this new story from the BBC shows, he has had his last chance at an appeal turned down and faces trial in the United States - and possibly a lengthy prison sentence, too.
I have said it before and I will say it again that Mckinnon was foolish to think he could hack the computers of official agencies and departments and get away with it unscathed.
However, there are several things to consider. Regardless of his crime, it was committed on British soil and he’s a British citizen. For those reasons, he should be tried and serve any sentence in Britain.
Second, the official world maintains that not only did Mckinnon hack systems; but that he also caused damage to those same systems.
Maybe that’s so. But here’s the problem. I say that the official world “maintains” he damaged systems because, so far (and despite the fact that not everyone realizes this) no actual hard evidence of the alleged damage has been produced.
In other words, Mckinnon is being extradited on word alone. Maybe that’s good enough for some; but it sure as hell wouldn’t be for me.
I guarantee that if, hypothetically, a US citizen was extradited to Russia and hauled before a Russian court on the word of the Russians, and without hard evidence being produced prior to extradition, there would be an uproar of massive proportions.
I’m not saying that Mckinnon is innocent - he did, after all, admit to the hacking. I’m just saying…
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Aug 28 2008 
August 28th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Mckinnon is neither a hero nor a victim. This whole business is smeared with several tones of gray.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
RPJ:
You’re exactly right. He’s not a hero, but neither is he a terrorist. What he will be, however, is a convenient scapegoat to deter others - with far more sinister motivations - from doing similar.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
A small price to pay for the greens he’ll make later on. Take a look at ten years from now, maybe twenty, when he decides to write a book about the whole ordeal. It won’t matter if much of it is fabricated or it’s claims aren’t able to be substantiated, people will buy it because they remember. He could even preface the book along the lines that he wasn’t able to divulge any serious information due to the gravity of the situation he was in at the time. It could happen. He could capitalize on it all in the end, and still remain a thorn in the proverbial side of NASA.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:49 am
What really angers me is that, as far as I’ve read in the news, the USA hasn’t actually signed the Extradition Treaty agreement. Only the UK has done that!
August 29th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Kithra:
Yes, it’s a one-way process. The US has made it clear it will not allow the UK to extradite US citizens for crimes committed against the UK on US soil. It only works the other way around.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:04 am
The only “damage” by Gary McKinnon that has been documented so far is the damage to America’s reputation. Most of the computers Gary logged into did not even have something as simple as password protection. This was never denied by the authorities and implies that all the computers in use by the American government are apparently incompetently maintained in regards to security. Gary has been accused of rendering some computers inoperable at a Naval Air Station “not long after the September 11 attacks” and therefore he is a “terrorist”, but this sounds like the typical fear-uncertainty-doubt propaganda of the American government. If Gary was a terrorist, why is this his only “attack”, presuming he did render this one computer inoperable and he did so on purpose? Gary was logged on to all those other just-as-critical unprotected military and NASA computers for almost six months before and six months after 911, so the potential for damage was tremendous, but yet all they can accuse him of is mucking up one little tiny computer sitting forgotten by security in the corner of some room, out of all the other thousands he had traversed before and after that. It is a stupid accusation to make and shows they are looking for blood, not justice. Gary embarrassed the world’s greatest military and space powers, in front of the whole world, by casually linking to their vast computer network that was just sitting there, wide open for anyone to just casually walk by and log into. Even a five year old could have done that and there is nothing more embarrassing than that. No wonder they are looking for revenge.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Sage:
You are exactly right!
Here’s something else that few are aware of.
When in 1997 US authorities were trying to get Welsh teenager Matt Bevan hammered for hacking into their systems in search of UFO data, the initial thing they wanted British authorities to charge him with was hacking.
However, that was changed later to hacking with intent to cause damage to the system - a far more serious charge.
The British judge overseeing the case demanded that the US show evidence of the damage.
They declined, went home, and the case against Bevan collapsed and was dismissed as a result of lack of evidence.
Of course, by hauling Gary over to the US, possibly trying him as a terrorist behind closed doors, there will be no British judge actually asking to see the evidence, which will presumably make the job easier in getting him sentenced.
The demands of the British judge (which were entirely valid) to actually see the evidence of damage were the major points that led to Bevan walking free.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:24 am
And, to add to my last point, I suspect US authorities have not forgotten this flaw that allowed Bevan to walk, and that’s possibly one of the reasons they want to deal with him on their own ground.
August 29th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Even if they put Gary on death row, it will do nothing to mend their reputation. Furthermore, if instituting the death penalty did nothing to deter the crime rate, anything more or less will do nothing to deter hacking either.
NASA was hacked by the WANK worm in 1989 and had to abort the launch of the Space Shuttle because of it. NASA was hacked into again in 1993 by three teenagers. The military was hacked into by a teenager in 1994. So apparently, even a bored teenager can hack NASA or the American military — and do it all in their spare time! Clearly this kind of thing is nothing new and the temptation is just too great because the rewards are great, the odds of getting caught are slim, and they are easy pickings. Instead of seeking petty revenge, I think they should be hiring a public relations expert to let the American public know that, “You can rest assure we know what we are doing and we are smarter than any teenager you can throw at our computer network” and then they should hire a bored teenaged hacker wannabee and if even he/she can see through the gaping flaws in their computer network security, they need to hire all new personnel because whoever is in charge of their computer network security now, is just not cutting it.
To tie this all back to UFOs, if NASA and the military cannot keep their computer network secure from even casual, uneducated computer users, how could anyone believe they could keep Roswell or any other alleged UFO event, safe and secure and secret for the last 50 years or more? Clearly they would not be able to do that.