Comments on: NASA hacker McKinnon moves closer to extradition

Gary McKinnon's hopes of avoiding extradition to the US now rest on a judicial review, following a decision not to charge him under UK law.

[sodapop2k9]

I dont see a good legal reason to give him leniency. He did something he knew was against the law, he knew the the penalties were severe. He should not have done it, period. What he was looking for nor his health have any bearing on the criminal trial. They are considerations for sentencing.

[lifelonglego]

Gary should be extradited and sent to jail.His condition shouldn't have any affect on his extradition. He did something he knew was wrong and illegal. He caused damage to United States of America to a severe extent. 700,000 dollars is a huge amount, and the disablement of a warship is a huge offense the should be rewarded with an equally huge sentence.

[chuckles2008]

I would be fighting this too if I was threatened with 70 years at a Federal max facility where parole is not possible. I still feel he probably will get something around the 3-5 year range. I wouldn't let the terrorism charges stick. He should be charged with the "unauthorized access to computer" charge, not any terrorism based charge. That $700,000 figure is suspect. Look at the fudged numbers when the Clinton admin went after Mitnick. I would take those numbers with a grain of salt.

[ferretboy88]

So did this idiot find any space alien info in our computers?

[hassan_bin_sober]

They should give him a medal for exposing the vulnerability of NASA's system!

[n3td3v]

The network admins who left the networks insecure should face charges as well.

[Darren Palmer]

Ignoring the fact the chap has an ailment, which in itself may not be irrelevant, there's no arguing surely the logic of potentially sticking him in a maximum security prison for up to 70 years?.

Whether in the UK or the US both legal systems need a good @rse kicking if they think that these sentences are fair when a recent supermarket row in the UK resulted in murdering of an innocent victim and the guilty guy got 5 years!!!. Bet that's not anything like maximum security either.

Make a scapegoat out of the poor guy who had the opportunity to exploit pathetic US Military security but pat the murderers and real terrorists on the back provided they don't know how to use a computer too.

He disabled a warship? what a joke!. If he managed that then it must have been running the fabled "windows for Warships" and patch tuesday hadn't yet come around. Hopefully the shuttle is still powered by a BBC Micro otherwise we're screwed there too!

[ferretboy88]

If you can do the crime you can do the time. He was well enough to learn how to crack. Now he is well enough to get smacked around in prison.