UFO Hacker Loses Appeal
The "UFO Hacker" Gary McKinnon has lost his extradition case in the United Kingdom. He now faces trial in the USA where he could receive a life sentence for hacking Military computers.
Between 2001 and 2002 Gary McKinnon apparently hacked the Pentago, NASA, and the US Military computer (90 different) systems looking for evidence of UFO landings. Gary is attributed, according the the US military of the "Largest military computer hack of all time".
According to the blog supporting Gary Mckinnon, who suffers from Asperger Syndrom, his lawyers will be appealing the latest ruling against Gary.
The US Military should be praising Gary for exposing the obviously horrid security of their systems instead of prosecuting someone who suffers from Autism, and happens to have a zealous passion for UFO's. In a time where the US is desperately looking for security talent they should be offering Gary a job instead of trying to lock him in jail for the rest of his life.
I also happen to completely disagree with any country that would consider extraditing anyone to a country that still supports the death sentence, claims to fight for justice and human rights but refuses to participate in the Hague or the ICC.
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The difficulty comes in that more traditional serious crimes such as murder or burglary all come with a certain moral deterant, the reason I don't go out and murder people has nothing to do with the potential sentence it's more about the morality of it, however these kind of white collar crimes have no moral detterant so the only one which can be formed is fear of prosecution, so they make examples of people such as Mckinnon in order to bestow fear into others.
That said, I can understand the extradition on this, all witnesses and evidence is based in the states, if we in the UK were to bring charges ourselves then extradition would be stopped in it's tracks, however, we simply don't have proper reason to charge him as the crime was technically committed in the US.
Now, the life sentence / death penalty isn't really so much of an issue, if Mckinnon was actually extradited to the US and tried, he'd almost certainly serve any sentence back here in the UK and not in the US once the trial was concluded.
"No, I wasn't trying to hack your system for your military secrets and plans for building a nuclear weapon, I was just applying for a job"
Don't get me wrong, if his autism is severe enough that it would have prevented him from properly thinking through his actions, then i certainly don't think he should be imprisoned for something that occurred as the result of a medical condition that is beyond his control. But is seems to me that you are saying that aside from his medical condition he should still be praised, offered a job and given a pass.
"In a time where the US is desperately looking for security talent they should be offering Gary a job instead of trying to lock him in jail for the rest of his life."
Security talent is only worth anything if you can trust the person with the talent.
I just don't believe he will receive a fair trial in the USA, he is simply going to be made into an example.
The comment about him being offered a job was intended as ironic. I am sure that it wouldn't be the first time a hacker went from hacking to consulting on cyber crime.
As for receiving a fair trial, I have no reason to believe he will not get one. Though, if the evidence is conclusive, it may be a quick one, but still, no reason to believe it won't be fair. And if the penalty is harsh, then so be it. Hacking into our defense system is not something that should be taken lightly, regardless of whether or not it was easy to do. Again, this is all assuming that he was capable of determining right from wrong.