Get Smart about Business Spending
NASA hacker wins right to appeal against extradition
Gary McKinnon, the man accused by U.S. prosecutors of "the biggest military hack of all time," has won the right to a judicial review of a Home Office decision to extradite him to the U.S.
Lord Justice Maurice Kay made the ruling at the High Court in London on Friday. The Home Office had refused to halt the extradition proceedings, despite McKinnon having been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum.
McKinnon's solicitor Karen Todner told ZDNet UK on Friday that she was "very pleased" about the High Court decision.
"It's a step in the right direction," Todner said. "We've got permission for a judicial review, and that shows we have an arguable case."
McKinnon's legal team applied for the review on the grounds that McKinnon's medical condition had not been taken into account by the Home Office or any UK court in deciding his extradition. If convicted by the U.S., McKinnon faces a 70-year sentence in a maximum security prison, his barrister Edward Fitzgearld QC has argued.
Todner said the review was granted on the grounds that the extradition may breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that no one shall be subjected to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
Professor Simon Baron Cohen, the Cambridge University specialist in developmental psychopathology who initially diagnosed McKinnon, said on Tuesday that McKinnon suffered the risk of "psychiatric difficulties" including depression and anxiety should he be extradited and imprisoned.
Home secretary Jacqui Smith turned down McKinnon's second appeal against extradition in October 2008, after the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome in summer 2008.
The judicial review will not take place until after the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has decided whether to charge McKinnon. McKinnon sent a signed confession to Starmer in December admitting offenses under Section 2 of the Computer Misuse Act, in the hope of being prosecuted under UK law.
Starmer is due to give his decision in just over two weeks. If he chooses to charge McKinnon, the judicial review will not take place, as extradition proceedings will cease. Otherwise, the judicial review will go ahead "towards the end of March," Todner told ZDNet UK.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Do keep quiet about cars when we're talking about computer systems and national security.
Jail does this to everyone. You would have to be sick and twisted to ENJOY jail
That is insane.
I could see 5. Maybe 8.
Nonsense like this is why murderers and rapists get out early.
Or some who cannot afford a home or someone who like a cheap place to live, their some nice open prisons around the UK.
The Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights would be dictating what punishments are fitting in our sovereign nation. He is lucky he isn't on the gallows for espionage!
The point is though if it wasn't McKinnon it was going to be someone else, it was a dead cert that national security was at stake.
The systems weren't secured by the U.S., the systems were inevitably going to be accessed and information stolen or the systems trashed.
Luckily McKinnon wasn't an Al Qaeda terrorist and was just a curious systems administrator, the U.S. should be thanking him for highlighting their national security vulnerability, not locking him up for 70 years as if he is an international terrorist.
More on point: What I find amazingly stupid is this comment from the article:
"Professor Simon Baron Cohen, the Cambridge University specialist in developmental psychopathology who initially diagnosed McKinnon, said on Tuesday that McKinnon suffered the risk of "psychiatric difficulties" including depression and anxiety should he be extradited and imprisoned."
Pardon me Professor but don't you think that all rationale people would "suffer the risk" of "depression and anxiety" if they were caught breaking the law, made a confession and now faced extradiction and imprisonment? I question whether this "professor" has been outside the ivy walls of his office in the last quarter century. Yes, Professor, I promise you, he will suffer deep dark depression for the rest of his life because that's what happens to all criminals who get caught. Your brilliant opinion is about as novel as discovering that older men would love to have sexual relations with younger-aged women . Congratulations. Let's put you on the list for the Nobel Prize.
If he stays in Britian he gets 6 months community service or something.
False. Intent plays a big part in sentencing. If you plan to kill someone you are treated far more harshly than if you just get mad on the spur of the moment. If you get caught stealing food to feed your kids you face less punishment than a person who does it for fun. Breaking into a computer to put a smiley face on an electronic billboard should lead to less punishment than breaking into a computer to steal money. Breaking in to steal money should lead to less punishment than hacking a system to shut down the cooling system of a nuclear reactor.
Past public service and behavior also counts. a person who has lived a life of public service will get a better sentence than a person who has had a long history of anti social behavior.
Judging intent can be tricky however it has been part of our legal systems as far back as humanity has records.
You would be correct except that real terrorists are getting treated different. Racists get treated differently, etc.
What you are saying is not reality.
More on point: What I find amazingly stupid is this comment from the article:
"Professor Simon Baron Cohen, the Cambridge University specialist in developmental psychopathology who initially diagnosed McKinnon, said on Tuesday that McKinnon suffered the risk of "psychiatric difficulties" including depression and anxiety should he be extradited and imprisoned."
Pardon me Professor but don't you think that all rationale people would "suffer the risk" of "depression and anxiety" if they were caught breaking the law, made a confession and now faced extradiction and imprisonment? I question whether this "professor" has been outside the ivy walls of his office in the last quarter century. Yes, Professor, I promise you, he will suffer deep dark depression for the rest of his life because that's what happens to all criminals who get caught. Your brilliant opinion is about as novel as discovering that older men would love to have sexual relations with younger-aged women . Congratulations. Let's put you on the list for the Nobel Prize.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a trial before declaring him guilty?
If he stays there - then there's no practical way to hold a trial - unless it's done via the internet using VOIP and such. Which would be poetic justice in this case I suppose.
How much damage was done to the U.S.s' security ? Will we ever recover ?
Will the hacker ever recover from 70 years in prison ?
Somehow common sense and logic have disappeared from the field of law.
He got 30 months.
Something has gone seriously wrong.
Here's what Gary did... He hacked into 97 DIFFERENT NASA and other military computers. If he hacked one computer, we could call it an accident or a matter of curiosity. But hacking two or more - that shows signs of malice. He caused damage to these systems that cost the government several hundreds of thousands of dollars. He even left a message on one of the computers protesting U.S. foreign policy, claiming that he'll continue to "disrupt at the highest levels," which IMO is along the lines of terrorism - maybe not terrorism with rockets and rifles, but terrorism nevertheless. This guy wasn't just looking for signs of aliens and UFOs; he had a different agenda, and these alien/UFO claims is just a cover-up.
This hacker's lucky he's getting 70 instead of the gas chamber.
Cite your source please.
Dude, read the official report. Under Count 1, "The defendant then obtained administrative privileges and transmitted codes, information and commands that: (1) deleted approximately 1300 user accounts; (2) installed RemotelyAnywhere; (3) deleted critical system files necessary for the operator of the computer; (4) copied a file containing usernames and encrypted passwords for the computer; and (5) installed tools used for obtaining unauthorized access to computers."
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/cyberlaw/usmck1102vaind.pdf
1. So if Gary broke into North Koreas' or Irans' pc's you would consider this treason against the U.S. ?
2. Hacking more than one computer is malice ? Like robbing more than one bank ? Sans logic to me.
3. I would imagine it will cost us some money to fix these obvious security holes in some of our most important systems, but dollar for dollar, it will cost much more to jail him and not use his talents. I would think that the Brits would like to keep him on their side of the pond anyway.
Why should our courts trump British law in a crime that was commited in the U.K. ?
4. Since when is "protesting U.S. foreign policy," a crime.
5. "claiming that he'll continue to "disrupt at the highest levels," which IMO is along the lines of terrorism - maybe not terrorism with rockets and rifles, but terrorism nevertheless. "
I can do this just by voting. Does this make me a terrorist too ?
I'll agree that something should be done about him , but locking him up and throwing away the key is not the answer.
1. I remember the poster (groink) clarifying his comment over an hour prior to your posting - therefore, I take you to be suffering from reading comprehension.
2. More than one equals malice? Here is some real easy logic for you - do it once, it's possibly forgivable or disregarded as a prank. Lots of times? PREMEDITATED CRIME. You should really invest in some college classes in CRITICAL THINKING. Unless of course you need remedial english first.
3. Dollar for Dollar. We have seen this type of 'punishment' in the past. It will not be so in the coming years as the new generations will be quite savvy and society will bow/kneel to the power of the computer. And I AGREE WITH YOU that it is likely the Brits will fight to keep him there in foggy ole London rather than have his 'talents' sold to the U.S.
4. When is protesting the U.S. a crime? When it is done by repeatedly breaking into the computer systems of NASA to leave it on someones desktop or whereever. It really isn't that difficult to comprehend.
5. How you were able to marry the lines of thought between VOTING - TERRORISM - and - an OUTRIGHT THREAT of future attempts to break into the computers at NASA - that's a miraculous piece of weaving on your part - I commend you in your creativity. But, really, I have to laugh at you and your lack of reasoning. Please, tell me who you voted for in the recent Presidential Election....was it....a Maverick and a Moron?
You poor, poor fool.
If there is a god may he/she have mercy on your soul. If there is no god, may the ground rise to meet your feet as you walk this dangerous Earth.
Peace
The Brit government has been fighting to extradite him to the US. A Brit judge has just put the breaks on that. I doubt he did that because he plans on using his hacking skills.
The insulting suffix isn't really necessary, is it.
I don't give a hoot if he's British, German or Venezuelan - he maliciously attacked the computer systems of a very sensitive organization and deserves to be tried.
He may have stated guilt in the UK, but it is certain that if he were to be brought to trial he would plead not guilty for some reason. And if the trials were held here, you can bet they'd be extremely harsh for him. We Ami's are not the soft teddy bears that you Brits are - we take everything to it's nth degree (not that that is anything to brag about).
As for the future of computer crime and such - how many of you can imagine a world where Capt. James T. Kirk is the ruling party? Am I being foolish? No. We are already past Science Fiction and fully into Science without the Fiction. We have an invisibility cloak that is being worked on at Duke University. We have the Japanese and Americans (among others) working on robotic suits (the Americans are developing theirs for military use) that can make a man superhuman. There is a ton of other stuff being developed by military groups around the globe. SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO...
Yeah, give this criminal the works. It's time to start thinking of serious breaches in IT infrastructure because sooner than any of you may think, we are going to be facing a global government more powerful, more secretive, and more like Science Fiction than anything that's ever come before.
" by n3td3v January 24, 2009 8:35 PM PST
The issue is not that he broke the law, its to which extent he broke the law. If he goes to America he will be branded a terrorist and be sent away for 70 years.
If he stays in Britian he gets 6 months community service or something."
The issue is to what extent.......exactly! So why is it that the Brits will only give him a firm talking to rather than engaging in conscientious argument concerning some real consequence? Depression? Come on, really. I suffer from bi-polar disorder (clinically diagnosed) and have to be on meds the rest of my life to simply cope with idiots and I guarantee you that if I were to commit a crime and were convicted, I would not be given leniency if I did what this guy did over and over and over and over.
And yet, here you are defending this fool as if all he did was ACCIDENTALLY fall into an open door!!!!!!!! You are the type of idiot that I cannot deal with because you are the type of idiot who sees a bomb in the road and you go over to paint flowers on the damned thing!!!!
Wake up people, this is no longer the 1050s with wide open spaces and such. This is 2009 and if Barack Obama thinks that IT is vitally important to campaigning for the Presidency of the United States AND to connect with the constituency, then you had better get with the program and tighten up your own backyard because within the next 30 years we will have 'invisible cops/soldiers' patrolling the streets and listening in to your conversations.
Throw the book at the hacker dude and let him rot in jail. It was a game. A very dangerous game he engaged in. He deserves some serious jail time.
peace
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/cyberlaw/usmck1102vaind.pdf
This is not a guy who's trying to find information on UFOs. He was looking for something else. Breaking into 97 computers.... Most "curious" people would've stopped at just a few computers after failing to find what he was looking for. But no, this guy was persistent. He kept on breaking into these systems like there was no tomorrow. And, he tried hiding his trails in the process. The stuff he did and his patterns - it only shows that he's a professional. My theory is that he was a hired hacker, and was hired to look for information. Only a professional would be persistent enough to hit almost a hundred systems. This Gary dude was persistent, and he was looking for something that he could make money. People don't know this, but many hackers are nothing but druggies or alcoholics, using their skills to make money to feed their habit.
So is everyone if there is *NO PASSWORD*.
The systems he entered had no password.
Was there any real need to get so personal about what you thought of my post ?
I would imagine you would get less time physically breaking into a Nasa office and going through their filing cabinets than you would if you hacked their servers. Where's the sense in that?
- by groink_hi January 26, 2009 1:45 PM PST
- I don't understand why people think murders, rapists and drug dealers are the three most worst crimes that can be placed upon mankind. Many times, whenever a white collar crime suspect is charged, people think the crime he committed is tiny by comparison.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(45 Comments)Well, many of us think that white collar crime IS much worse than murder, rape and drug dealing. In the case of McKinnon, the crime he committed, along with the damage he made AND the information he probably extracted from these computer could potentially put the entire United States into harm's way. While a person murders a person or even a dozen people, it does not compare to the leaking of information that potentially affect millions of people. Consider, for example, that Gary came across information that would help terrorists bypass security. Or information that allows a person to use WMD such as poisons to infect an entire state.
White collar crime is not a simple crime. The act itself may be simple, which is why people think that 70 years is too harsh. But, Gary could potentially have come across classified information. It isn't like the government is going to tell the public, "Yeah, he came across X information." This is why 70 years is probably right for the crime Gary committed. It has nothing to do with the physical crime, but more it has to do with the potential for destruction of U.S. citizens' safety.
For those people who think he should get only a few years or months, or even WALK AWAY from this a free man, they have absolutely no idea how dangerous information technology can be if the information it tries to protect gets into the wrong hands. Again, a murder only infects a small number of people. Rapists only affect a small number of people. INFORMATION can destroy an entire nation.