Gary McKinnon.
 

Between 2001 and 2002, a 34 year old man born in Scotland but now living in England managed to hack into 97 NASA and Pentagon computers. He has Asperger's syndrome (a mild form of autism, characterised by linier thinking and little or no awareness of anything outside his own world) and was looking for information about UFOs, which he thought was hidden in secret US government files. He found nothing, and left messages pointing out that their computer security "was useless".

Incredibly, the US authorities want to extradite him and try him under US laws for the 'crime' of computer terrorism and even more incredibly, despite scoring 43 out of 50 points on tests designed to recognize Asperger's/Autism, so far our weak kneed lily livered government has gone along with it.

Two reasons for not allowing this to happen:

1). The extradition treaty between the U.S.A. and the U.K. is unbalanced;
to extradite from the U.S.A. to the U.K. requires very strong evidence to
'prove' the suspect is guilty before letting them be extradited; to go the
other way the US government only needs to show reasonable grounds to suspect that the
individual concerned has committed a crime.
2). All he seems guilty of is causing whoever set up the security systems of
the hacked computers 'extreme embarrassment'.

So, should this guy be sent to the U.S.A. to face charges of computer terrorism? If found guilty (which having admitted to what he's done he probably will be) he could face up to 50 years in prison; chances of survival of someone with Asperger's syndrome are slim to zero, or should he be given a medal for showing how crap the computers security systems were. Remember, this guy used home computers and was self taught. If this classic 'nerd' could do what he did and leave messages saying he'd been there, how far into the system could a genuine computer terrorist get without being detected?

Is it just me, or is the US government guilty of slamming the stable door so long after the horse has bolted that it's probably died of old age?

What he's REALLY guilty of is making some big hotshot look like a 1st class tool, & THAT can't be tolerated...

Put him in jail? Hell, somebody outta put him to work...sounds like he knows what he's doing.

Chas

I think your making this out to seem like anyone could easily hack these computers. Not so. This person is obviously computer savvy. Should he be extradited and tried ? I don't know but I can tell you he is very dangerous around computers and that privilege should be revoked at the very least.

That's the point I was making. If a relatively benign 'nerd' can do what he did, how easy would it be for a professional with bad intent to get deep into the system? I'm not just thinking about foreign terrorists, you have a fair number of home grown obsessives with grudges against the IRS, Military, hell any organization you like is a potential target. Like you say, he could be teaching people how to block access, not locked up.

Quote Grumpy: I think your making this out to seem like anyone could easily hack these computers. Not so. This person is obviously computer savvy. Should he be extradited and tried ? I don't know but I can tell you he is very dangerous around computers and that privilege should be revoked at the very least.

I take your point about him being dangerous around computers but if he was tried in the U.K., given a short term prison term then released, the ease with which you can buy PCs and the number of High Street internet cafes plus access to computers in most libraries would in practice make it very difficult to keep him away from them. I've maybe overstated how easy it was for him to do what he did, but the fact he could do it at all shows the sites he got into were vulnerable. Instead of leaving messages, someone who wanted to could have done a great deal of damage.

Insted of putting him on trial why not take advantage of his abilities to locate all the loopholes and then plug them? Sound to me like someone has their head in a strange place.

Bunch of spineless bastards.
 

Latest thing in the case of Gary McKinnon? Despite 59 Labor MPs speaking out publicly and signing a commons motion backing the man and opposing extradition, when it came to a vote in the House of Commons, they voted for the government. So unless Gordon Brown (prime minister) discovers that after all he does have a pair of balls, McKinnon will soon be on his way to the USA, where he faces up to 50 years in a maximum security prison.

Our Labor government faces a general election within the next 12 months; meanwhile it's hanging on by its fingernails. I'll bet £100 against 1p that they'll get kicked out of office so hard they'll be gone for a generation. Good for us, but not a lot of good for Gary McKinnon.

You know what? From this thread alone I've seen the US system described as at best flawed and at worst corrupt, but I'd swop it for our bunch of spinless bastards any time.

Don't ask for our system, it's no walk in the park either.

It is a shame that someone with those abilities isn't being hired by anyone's government. Maybe that's what will happen when he gets here?

Hi Cabinover,

I didn't say it was, but it seems to be more open than ours. Maybe it's something in the Constitution (or it's seemingly numerous amendments) but from the outside looking in yours has its strong points. Take away the gothic splendor of the Palace of Westminster, the Beefeaters, Buckingham Palace and all the other bits of ancient architecture and arcane customs, and here in the U.K. we're left with something rather grubby and secretive.