Is Gary McKinnon an alien obsessed nerd or a NASA hacking mastermind?

By Davey Winder
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 21:03

Home IT

British citizen Gary McKinnon is either a master hacker who perpetrated the biggest US military computer hack of all time or a bumbling nerd obsessed with aliens. Whatever, the Americans want to throw him in jail and throw away the key. The European Court of Human Rights says they cannot have him, at least until the end of the month...

Known by the online name of Solo, Gary McKinnon is an unlikely hacker hero. This now unemployed, former systems analyst, from London is a 42 year old man with a self-confessed obsession about UFOs and aliens.

Yet between 2001 and 2002 McKinnon stands accused of hacking into 97 computers on networks owned and operated by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and US Department of Defense.

United States prosecutors insist that this was the biggest military computer hacking exploit the country had ever seen at the time, and accuse McKinnon of causing around USD $700,000 in costs to both track him down and repair the damage he caused.

Indeed, they claim that he not only altered and deleted files on military computers, but did so during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. As a result, critical systems within at least one US Naval Weapons Station were rendered inoperable.

Perhaps the most serious allegation, though, is that he maliciously shut down the entire 2000 strong US Army computer network serving the Military District of Washington.

McKinnon, on the other hand, prefers to think of himself as a bumbling computer nerd who looked for, and found if you belive his version of events, evidence of alien contact buried within the US military databases.

After the US authorities, with more than a little help from the UK-based High Tech Crime Unit, managed to track down this most dangerous of men, it was decided that he would face no charges.

In the UK at least.

The Americans had different ideas, and in 2002 McKinnon was indicted by the United States government. Fast forward to 2005 and, as part of a new extradition treaty between the UK and US, he was placed on police bail. As well as reporting to the police every day, and being put on a night-time curfew, he was also banned from using any computer connected to the Internet.

McKinnon claims that he has been threatened with a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay if he does not plead guilty and accept a plea bargain.

Is McKinnon a terrorist who needs to face a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal or just an alien obsessed nutter nerd? Make your mind up after reading page 2...

CONTINUES