About Hacking and hackers

Is Gary McKinnon a Cyber-Terrorist ?

source: bbc,wikipedia,freegary

Well ! I think there is need to introduce Mr.Gary McKinnon ,the british HACKER who hacked 97 US Military and Nasa computers from his north LONDON home.

Gary McKinnonn, also known as Aka Solo, was born in Glasgow in 1966. Gary got his first computer when he was 14 years old, and has been a hobbyist ever since. He left school at 17, and became a hairdresser. But, in the early 1990s, some friends convinced him to get a qualification in computers. After completing a course, he started doing contract work in the computing field.By the late 1990s, Mr McKinnon decided to use his hacking skills to do what he calls "research" on an issue he firmly believes in. He tried to hack different unauthorised systems using different hacking tools.

The US government alleges that between February 2001 and March 2002, the 40-year-old computer enthusiast from north London hacked into dozens of US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers.It says his hacking caused some $700,000 dollars(£375,235) worth of damage to government systems.

What's more, they allege that Mr McKinnon altered and deleted files at a US Naval Air Station not long after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and that the attack rendered critical systems inoperable.The US government also says Mr McKinnon once took down an entire network of 2,000 US Army computers. His goal, they claim, was to access classified information.

In July 2005, Mark Summers, another official representing the US government, told a London court that Mr McKinnon's hacking was "intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion".

McKinnon was originally tracked down and arrested under the Computer Misuse Act by the UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) in 2002 who informed him that he would face community service. The Crown Prosecution Service refused to charge him. Later that year he was indicted by the United States government. McKinnon remained at liberty without restriction for three years until June 2005 (after the UK had implemented a new extradition treaty with the US) when he became 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 more developments in respect of the charges relating to United Kingdom legislation but in late 2005 the United States began extradition proceedings.

If he is extradited to the US and charged, McKinnon faces up to 70 years in jail and has expressed fears that he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay. 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 any alleged crimes were committed there and not in the United States.

Following legal hearings in the UK it was decided in July 2006 that he should be extradited to the United States. In February 2007 his lawyers argued against the ruling in an appeal to the High Court in London, which was turned down on April 3. He still has the possibility of appealing to the House of Lords, and his lawyer has stated that he will do this, using the argument that because the alleged offences were committed in the UK this is where he should be tried. On July 31, 2007 the House of Lords agreed to hear the appeal.


Click here to view the official report of US department of Justice indictment for Gary McKinnon, this report consists of all crimes that US claims against Gary.

His supporters even started a blog aiming US to free Gary from extradition.

McKinnon responds to media in various occations-few of them reports as-

Gary never denied accessing the computer networks between February 2001 and March 2002. He has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.

In a BBC interview in 2005-

Mr McKinnon said that he was not a malicious hacker bent on bringing down US military systems, but rather more of a "bumbling computer nerd".He said he's no web vandal, or virus writer, and that he never acted with malicious intent.But he did admit that he hacked into dozens of US government computer systems. In fact, he calmly detailed just how easy it was to access extremely sensitive information in those systems.

"I found out that the US military use Windows," said Mr McKinnon in that BBC interview. "And having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly."

Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So, he simply hacked into them.

Regarding UFO search, Gary reportedly feels that US is hidding certain info from the world as he says-
"It wasn't just an interest in little green men and flying saucers," said Mr McKinnon. "I believe that there are spacecraft, or there have been craft, flying around that the public doesn't know about."

He further explained that he believes the US military has reverse engineered an anti-gravity propulsion system from recovered alien spacecraft, and that this propulsion system is being kept a secret.

In that sense, Mr McKinnon said he sees his own hacking as "humanitarian." He said he only wanted to find evidence of a UFO cover-up and expose it. He called the alleged anti-gravity propulsion system "extra-terrestrial technology we should have access to".

As he added-"I wanted to find out why this is being kept a secret when it could be put to good use," he said in the BBC interview last year.

He siad-"I'd stopped washing at one point. I wasn't looking after myself. I wasn't eating properly. I was sitting around the house in my dressing gown, doing this all night."

Thus, Gary McKinnon's search turned into an obsession, an addiction. As he probed high-level computer systems in the United States, his life in Britain fell apart. He lost his job, and his girlfriend dumped him. Friends told him to stop hacking, but to no avail.

Eventually, Mr McKinnon got sloppy. He started leaving behind clues. At one point, Mr McKinnon began posting anti-war diatribes on the screens of the US government computers that were his targets. He has insisted, however, that he never attempted to sabotage any operations.

Few people felt that-

Hackers and other hi-tech vandals should be punished for their crimes, but questioned whether Mr McKinnon's treatment had been "fair" as so far the evidence presented by the US against him had not been contested in court.

Slightly more than 50% of 500 IT professionals polled online by computer security firm Sophos said that Mr McKinnon should not be extradited to the US.

A decision in the case was originally due in February 2006 but was postponed as the UK sought assurances from the US about some issues in the case.

The UK wanted to be sure that Mr McKinnon would not face a military tribunal, will be eligible for parole and that he would not serve his sentence at Guantanamo Bay.