McKinnon's last appeal has failed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8177561.stm

by Robin_Message • 17 years ago

26 22 17 years ago

news.bbc.co.uk

swombat2• 17 years ago

Very disappointing indeed. I shudder to think that this guy (who is quite obviously pretty harmless, even though he also clearly did something stupid) will have to face the full barbaric apparatus of the US anti-terrorist justice system. For all we know, maybe he'll end up in Guantanamo Bay.

cesare• 17 years ago

Indeed. This is really sad.

By the way, I would like to know how could he have made $800.000 in damages. Is this the money spent to make the system more secure?

gaius3• 17 years ago

It's pretty easy to envision this. Say something he did caused a pallet not to be included on a manifest and it had to go out on another flight when a human at the other end noticed it was missing.

83457• 17 years ago

It probably comes down to time spent trying to track whether or not he did something malicious and other investigative processes necessary. Put a few security experts or a consulting firm on the case for a year and it gets quite expensive. Also if they found out he compromised sensitive information and had to change plans or reschedule something then expenses start racking up.

theblackbox• 17 years ago

I don't doubt he is heading the way of the Intelligence "fusion" centers[1] and some form of interrogation. This is an absolute shambles and shows just how inept and yellow the UK home office are. Not only are they going to hand this guy over in blatant disregard to his Human rights, they are refusing to publicise documents surrounding the Iraq war investigation - mostly due to very subtle pressure levied by US military in regard to "intelligence sharing" (same thing used in this G.M. case). And as a final insult they /demand/ that the UK population bend over and take it when it comes to the National ID scheme, which has been proven time and again to be totally against public consensus....

[1] http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_spy_who_billed_me_twice

designtofly• 17 years ago

Pretty harmless? I'll admit that I don't know much about this case, but this bit seems to indicate otherwise:

"Mr McKinnon admits that he hacked into 97 US computers from his bedroom in north London between 2001 and 2002 and left a message on one machine saying: "I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.""

Two years, almost 100 computer systems, taunting and threats.. that doesn't sound so harmless to me.

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5...

swombat2• 17 years ago

The full message that he left was:

“US foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days . . . It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year . . . I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels . . .”

In context, it seems less sinister, more stupid / self-important.

jacquesm3• 17 years ago

This guy is going down not because of the damage he created but because of the embarrassment he created.

A military installation that can be hacked by somebody in a foreign country ought to be plugging holes instead of asking for extradition.

jodrellblank3• 17 years ago

Sixty years ago, ish, Feynman found he could pick safe locks in the Manhatten project offices, and alerted the military higher ups to the weakness and how to reset the locks when they close the safes so they would be secure. Their response was to send round a memo banning Feynman from entering their offices. - "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman".

It's all just a little bit of history repeating. Heh.

gaius3• 17 years ago

We only have his word that he was "looking for UFOs". Just sayin'.

jacquesm3• 17 years ago

True.

Even so he should have never been able to do what he did. All he should have found were very securely locked doors, alarmbells going off all over the place and a very stern talking to.

We're not talking about the website of the local football club here, it's the military.

If a foreign nation with a large budget and a concerted effort would be able to crack it that would be embarrassing but at least you could have some understanding. Now the assumption is that if this clown could do it then probably every two bit intelligence agency in the world has been doing it as well. In other words there is lots of egg to go around for various faces.

Instead of turning this guy into an asset they are trying to make him in to a scapegoat. What he did wasn't good but he could only do it because somebody else left cracks that shouldn't even have been there in the first place.

As it is they ought to be very much ashamed.

Of course there will be people that will say 'but he had no business doing that' or 'he should have known better'.

Maybe.

The 'rattling a locked door of my house' analogy has been made plenty of times, I think the military should be held to a much higher standard and that they basically ought to put out a bounty for every hole that somebody proves exists.

That way the script kiddies/blackhats get to make a decent living and we all end up more secure.

smithjchris• 17 years ago

There should be no extradition for British nationals. It should be handled according to our law.

The US already have a seriously bad reputation when it comes to handling things like this so I'm sure he'll end up bagged and tagged within a year.

biohacker42• 17 years ago

The US government really really wants to make an example of an aspie UFO believer. Just like they like to throw the book at other mostly harmless kids, Adrian Lamo comes to mind.

I'm disgusted and outraged but can't think of anything I could do that wouldn't be pointless other then making me feel like I did something.

Writing letters to my representatives/senators is not going to make them do diddly squat in defense of a "military hacker", that's the stuff political attack adds would love as fodder.

mynameishere2• 17 years ago

Not sure why everyone is so shocked. Breaking into military computers = you deal with the consequences.

jodrellblank3• 17 years ago

The contention is between his claim that he's a bumbling computer nerd who accessed open unsecured computers and did no damage, and the military claim that he perpetrated the biggest military computer hack ever, rendered 300 computers unusable after 9/11 (?!), deleted weapons logs and caused $700,000 damages.

Which consequences are you ranting that he should deal with, exactly?

mynameishere2• 17 years ago

I'm not ranting. FYI, "bumbling" is not a legal defense.

FiveFiftyOne• 17 years ago

I am the only one who thinks that if you think you're smart enough to do something you know is illegal, then you should be big enough to handle what comes your way when you get caught? Bollocks to his mental state and his frailty and the other excuses being trotted out on his behalf. He knew he was doing wrong when he committed the hack, and he should grow the necessaries to deal with the consequences now. Too late to cry about.

sfphotoarts• 17 years ago

yeah, you're right, but a lot of people have that sympathize-with-the-little-guy mentality despite what they have done.

Bollocks indeed.

McKinnon's last appeal has failed

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