UK Hacker loses Extradition Case

SnakeOil Steve writes to tell us that Gary McKinnon, the alleged hacker who broke into Army, Air Force, Navy, and NASA systems, has just lost his extradition case. From the article: "'My intention was never to disrupt security. The fact that I logged on and there were no passwords means that there was no security,' McKinnon said, outside the hearing at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court. 'I was looking for UFOs.'"

Re:I left my door unlocked today

[filesiteguy]

Well, that is a good point. What if I reply by saying, I went in your house BECAUSE the door was opened and wanted to make sure you were okay? Now as a defense I suppose I would be leaving a note saying, "hey wanted to make sure you were not hurt and you left your door open."

I dunno. What exactly did he break into? Did he take anything with him? Is there a loss - monetary, security - directly attributed to this action?

Seems kind of far-fetched to me.

Disclaimer

[sonixtwo]

I'm sure as soon as he attempted the connection or got logged on that there was a welcome message that said "unauthorized activity prohibited" or something to that effect. How he didn't see this coming I will probably never understand.

Re:Nice Try

[dkh2]

[person in favor of the 'PATRIOT' act] : Ouch! That's cutting a little close to the bone, don't you think? Don't you want to be safe from terrorists?

[person in disfavor of the 'PATRIOT' act] : Ouch! that's cutting a little close to the bone, don't you think? Isn't it painful enough that our government is run by paranoid underachievers who want the rest of us to be to frightened to fart?

attractive nuisance doctrine?

[Anonymous Coward]

* There was no security.
* I was looking for UFOs.

Could this fall under the "attractive nuisance doctrine"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractive_nuisance_d octrine [wikipedia.org]

(IANAL)

Re:Nice Try

[Fred_A]

It's still not very clear why he ought to be extradited though.

Does the US ever ship anyone overseas for trial ?

UFO Technology

[adius]

Is UFO technology something to laugh about?

Yes, the subject of UFOs seems funny, but when military whistleblowers claim there is some truth behind the technology...that is a different matter.

www.disclosureproject.org

If the witnesses on the Disclosure Project site (as referenced by the hacker) are really from the government, we all must reconsider our position. According to their claims, our government has free energy technology capable of powering the world without dirty fuels.

Think about the implications and the technology. I know many here are smart enough to look beyond the "little green men".

He didn't sound so smart to me.....

[gerrysteele]

It is a hazy issue when the crime commited is somewhat abstract. But this only means that prosecuters can paint any kind of picture they want. Which of course means he is screwed. However having seen his interview, he didn't talk like he had a clue. especially when descibing his methods; in fact it sounded like he was using VNC or something similar on a dial up connection (and by his own admission in 4bit colour depth). As for the whole alien thing, that sounds like a desperate attempt to publicise his plight outside the IT community to get public sympathy, which is prob a smart move. And if he was smart enough and was on their systems for that number of years, he would undoubtedly have collected and stored documents and images of interest. I'm not so sure he saw anything. As for the US government, they would have been better saying "we were hacked because of insecurities in a commercial piece of software we were using as an OS. This software is being phased out and replace with a more secure environment. Gary who??"

Re:Disclaimer

[liliafan]

Actually I work for the DoD and we just got a new regulation on displaying banners on connection, it is entirely possible there was no banner at the time of the 'break in'.

Re:attractive nuisance doctrine?

[shis-ka-bob]

This is actually interesting ... it would make for a fascinating defense. After all, a grown man that is looking for UFOs does have a child-like quality.

Re:A couple of points

[Anonymous Coward]

Given the US support for Irish Republican Army terrorists, I find the US "War on Terror" very hypocritical.

Re:Nice Try

[Anonymous Coward]

Shoppings centers are public spaces that are private property. Usually (as far as I know, and at least in my country) the owner can not ask to leave without a good reason (bad behaviour, being drunk or likewise). If your assumption was true, nothing would stop bussiness to being "white only" (or whatever only) by just asking all people of other races to leave.

Well under English law, and I assume American, if I own a mall outright, I can legally exclude anyone I like, irrespective of behaviour. If I did however say "all black people are banned", I'd probably fall foul of various racial discrimination laws, but to say "you, john, are banned, leave, never darken my doors", john may have not done anything but if he comes back he is tresspassing.

Here you go.

[tddoog]

Here you go.

[zazzle.com]
Free Gary McKinnon [zazzle.com] by tdougan [zazzle.com]

Or did you mean "free" Gary McKinnon T-shirt