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Gary McKinnon

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Gary McKinnon, also known as Solo, is a British hacker accused by one US prosecutor of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time." He is currently awaiting extradition to the United States.


Background

The 39-year-old unemployed computer systems administrator is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002. The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense and the US Air Force, and also one belonging to The Pentagon. The US estimates claim the costs of tracking and correcting the problems he allegedly caused were around 900,000 USD

McKinnon was originally tracked down and arrested under the Computer Misuse Act by the UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) in 2002, and later that year was also indicted by the United States government. He remained at liberty although subject to bail conditions including a requirement to sign in at his local police station every evening, and to remain at his home address at night. In addition he was banned from using a computer with access to the internet. There have been no further developments in respect of the charges relating to United Kingdom legislation, but in late 2005 the United States formally began extradition proceedings.

If he is extradited to the U.S. and charged, McKinnon faces up to 70 years in jail and has expressed fears that he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay.[1][2] He has said that he will contest the extradition proceedings and believes that he should face trial in the UK, principally as he argues that his crimes were committed there and not in the United States.

Statements to the Media

Owing both to the length of time between his indictment and formal beginning of extradition proceedings and also growing media interest in his case Gary Mckinnon has had a number of opportunities to address the media.

At the Infosecurity Europe 2006 conference in London on April 27, 2006, McKinnon appeared on the Hackers' Panel. When asked how his exploits were first discovered, McKinnon answered that he'd miscalculated the timezone -- he was using remote-control software to operate a Windows computer while its user was sitting in front of it.

McKinnon has admitted in many public statements to unauthorised access to computer systems in the United States including those specifically mentioned in the United States indictment. He claims his motivation was to look for evidence of UFOs and said that he knows for a fact that the Americans have antigravity technology. In particular he claimed in a BBC interview on 6 May 2006 that he had seen an image he described as "amazing..a culmination of all my efforts. It was a picture of something that definitely wasn't man-made." When asked if he had saved a copy of this image he explained:

GM: No, the graphical remote viewer works frame by frame. It's a Java application, so there's nothing to save on your hard drive, or at least if it is, only one frame at a time.
BBC: So did you get the one frame?
GM: No.
BBC: What happened?
GM: Once I was cut off, my picture just disappeared.
BBC: You were actually cut off the time you were downloading the picture?
GM: Yes, I saw the guy's hand move across.
BBC "Click"

If true this would explain why McKinnon was unable to do a simple screen capture and save a copy of the image. His failure to do so has attracted some criticism and cast doubt on his version of events.

The charge that he perpetrated "the biggest military hack of all time" is disputed by McKinnon who characterizes himself as a "bumbling computer nerd". He refers to previous documented incidents of hacking including in May 2001 when as acknowledged by U.S. government contractor Exigent International one or more hackers broke into a U.S government server storing satellite software and stole code. Evidence led investigators to an e-mail service in Sweden, but the culprits were never apprehended. Prior to that in 1997, two California teenagers and a trio of Israeli hackers were arrested for hacking into Pentagon servers. Israeli hacker Ehud Tenenbaum, then 18 years old, and his two teenage accomplices were not extradited, but were prosecuted by local authorities. Mckinnon has also claimed that on many occasions he noticed other hackers unlawfully accessing the same systems and suggests that his activities were not unique. The U.S. Pentagon has for example in the past cited as many as 250,000 attacks in a single year.

Legal Developments

Gary McKinnon's extradition hearing is scheduled for May 10 2006 at Bow Street Magistrates' Court.

At a hearing on 12 April 2006 the prosecution produced an unsigned note from the US Embassy, claimed to be a guarantee that McKinnon would not be tried under U.S. Military Order 1 (November 13 2001 - 66 Fed. Reg. 57,833 "Military Order"), which allows suspected terrorists to be tried under military law. However, the defence argued that the note was not binding as it was unsigned. The defence called as a witness Clive Stafford-Smith, a US-based lawyer who has defended inmates of Guantanamo Bay. Stafford-Smith argued that the note would not prevent McKinnon from being treated as a terrorist. The case was then adjourned until 10 May. Under the UK Extradition Act 2003 there is no requirement for an extradition request from the United States to contain prima facie evidence of the charges.

References

  1. ^ BBC News URL last accessed 13 April 2006
  2. ^ BBC News URL last accessed 13 April 2006

External links

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