Comments on: NASA hacker McKinnon 'at risk,' lawyer says

At a hearing in London, the defense argues that Gary McKinnon could suffer "psychotic disruption" if his pending extradition to the U.S. is upheld.

[sanenazok]

What a waste of money for both governments. The guy's got mild asperger 's. Just stick him in a work-release program and have the brits keep him away from a computer for a few years. How would the US prosecutor benefit from putting him in a US federal prison. Certainly not going to get any money back.

[wangbang]

Aw, let's have a pit

[tektaktyks]

oh he'll b working ,for the obamas cyber security team

[pj-mckay]

Well putting murderers and paedophiles behind bars costs us all money so, yep, going by your rationale we should just not bother. WRONG.. It's not about money. It's about justcice and retribution. Yep, it may have bee the pentagon, and it may have been low level but I don't know that though i sure am hearing a lot of folk saying it was nothing. I may be wrong but generally NOTHING equates to folk ignoring it and not publicising the events too much. I worked in banks, where folk caught doing silly things like adding gadgets between the encryptor & keyboard to gather PIN and account details were quietly herded out the door to save publicity. This level of publicity suggests major with a capital M. Ignorance was never an excuse, nor should being an inteligent dimwit.... Hang im high !

[tektaktyks]

did he find any evidence of UFOs?

[sanenazok]

No.

[ralfthedog]

The Calamari deleted the information before he got to it. Unfortunately by deleting the information, they crashed a bunch of computers.

[luke_marsh]

I suppose it works like this.
Don't worry sir we have a nice spot for you in bellmarsh.
Owee no says the US military we have a far better spot for him.
No you must be mistaken this person won't last out the journey to the US (your not having him).
I'm sure something can be arranged bicker bicker.

Point of the story if you hack that much top US equipment your everyone's best friend sorry akhumm I meant worst enemy of course and thus the decisions as to what is to be done with your are purely financial ones akumm sorry I meant ones of Justice issues of course I did yes.

[ledhead1962]

The guy must be ******. You hack into US military systems and then get stressed when they come after you sorry ***. 'OOps sorry about that. Just kidding mate. What's that you want to have a long talk with me in room with no windows. Umm no, I'm crazy you see, think I'll stay here and have a cuppa.' Here's a clue - don't mess with the pentagon unless you mean it.They are not the understanding type and you positively don't want them to get their hands on you. Notice - Between these five walls there will be no shenanigans tolerated!

[paulej]

As I understand it, the "hacking" was not really sophisticated "hacking". I thought it was reported that the machines were just sitting out on the Internet with no passwords. If that is the case, then I tend to agree that the issue is overblown. And, what I'd like to know is why there were not a few folks in the NASA heading to jail for putting national security at risk -- if there was risk. In any case, it seems stupid to me to go punish a person who just "walked in the door" and not punish those who are responsible for managing those machines.

[monkeyfun14]

@paulej

Just because you leave your door unlocked does that mean I can legally just walk in and mess things up?

[pentest]

MonkeySpank,

Yes, if your house held something vital to the security of others.

[Greg5A]

Hm. So he is stressed a bit, eh? I would imagine that being in police custody would be rather stressful for anyone. After all, there is all that nasty stuff such as handcuffs, jail cells, big burly police officers who are not amused by your exploits, etc.

I'm sure that American authorities could find comfortable accomodations for him--perhaps in our "SuperMax" prison in the Colorado desert, where he would have his own personal cell with a slit window to look out while being "locked down" in isolation 23 hours per day... On the bright side, the food might be good.

[sanenazok]

Let's pay $5,000 a day to keep this guy in a supermax prison and only after spending $100K on the extradition and trial in the US.

[Daddio2009]

Extradite the miserable bum and put him away for 10 years. He's cost the US Government millions already and raised security concerns. He is nothing but a boil on the bum of Society.

[Fire Balls]

So the real crime here is that US military systems are so insecure that this one guy could take them down. And we are fighting cyberwars already with countries like China and Russia. This doesn't give me a lot of faith in our military. Probably this could have been prevented or the damage minimized had security and redundancy been properly applied. With the capabilities of the systems we have even for corp. use today in those areas it makes me think that ether the military needs an upgrade or they need to be learn how to properly utilize and setup the systems they have.

[Greg5A]

I admit I have to agree with some of these comments. Sometimes I get the impression that our country is being run by a bunch of dumbheads. We often seem to be clueless and "locking the barn door after the horse has escaped."

The federal government now, however, seems to be paying attention to computer security.

[pj-mckay]

Shame he never thought of that before he did it.

As a countryman of mine I still feel no pity... If you do the crime you gotta be prepared to do the time. Hang him high but give him a tissue for his little crying eyes!

As I know when you do the crime you have to do the time right?Fair would be that the romanian hacker Victor Faur be extradite too for the same crime.He already got indicted in LA court to 54 years?What did he get in Romania? 1 year and 4 months with suspention and ordered to pay some $240K,the damage was over $1mill wussup with that?A slap on America's face.Looks like he got away with no jail time,and had the guts to appeal that too.Is he ever gonna pay back out money?Mybe he will because he still hacking,he was selling NASA root then ,what makes you think he is not selling root to your servers too atm?Creating w0rms that infect your computer when you click on that sweet "hallmark" E-Card that he sents you for Christmas or Valentines Day, running his zombies army and controlling your computers from a "hacked" remote server,using them for DoS attacks and so on.When asked by a friend what happened with the Americans his answer was "I pissed on them".Then he needs to be here and see who is gonna **** on him in jail,or if he can **** on all of us (funny huh).Anyway,I think they all should face & feel the American justice no matter what country they are from.Gov should hire better security ppl to secure their servers,they are getting paid too much money and do nothing.It's ashame that some kids can brake so easy on our gov machines/servers.Good luck on bringing them all to justice.

[lenilava]

I THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTELLIGENT COMMENTS ! ATTACKING A DISABLED PERSON !
SIGH !

[doodlebug260]

This person deserves no sympathy what so ever. This was a treasonist act and usually death is the punishment. As a tax payer I am tired of my tax money paying for some criminals room and board. We need to go back to the old ways of dealing with them. I.E. If you were convicted as a horse theif you were hanged, if you were convicted of treason, you were hanged. To many bleeding hearts who just want a slap on the wrist. Our prisons are overcrowded now with lifers who do not deserve to live.

Disabled?By telling the truth is not attacking.
Right on doodlebug.

[pentest]

Treason?

He is not an american citizen.

I don't think you have any understanding of what the term means.

By your definition, American spies working overseas looking into terrorist movements or spying on Iran are guilty of treason.

[indy2001]

He's got anxiety? I should hope so!! How much anxiety did he intentionally inflict by his dangerous actions? Asperger's Syndrome, while a real condition, is the newest defense tactic. Because it is so ill-defined, even by the medical community, lawyers have learned they can blame it for all kinds of anti-social behavior. But stress causing lumps in his eye and on his shoulder? That's a new one at least. Hopefully the judge will see through this transparent ruse and let him return to the US to face the music. And if he needs medical care while incarcerated, our prison docs are as good as you'll find anywhere!

[pentest]

This guy did the DoD a huge favor. They should be grateful that someone dangerous didn't get in because of the non-existent security.