UK UFO-hunter faces 60 years in jail

Wotcher, mate. It's IT Blogwatch: in which London hacker Gary McKinnon loses his appeal against extradition to the U.S. Not to mention Stephen King, as you've never seen him before...

Jeremy Kirk reports:

A British hacker who admitted breaking into U.S. military computers hoping to uncover evidence of UFOs looks set to be extradited to the U.S. after the highest British court today dismissed his appeal against the extradition.

Gary McKinnon, 42, of London, will be the first person to be extradited to the U.S. for computer-related crimes. He could face up to 60 years in prison. McKinnon said he plans to appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.
...
McKinnon had admitted to using a program called "RemotelyAnywhere" to hack into PCs in the U.S. late at night when employees were gone. His hacking exploits started to unravel after McKinnon miscalculated the time difference between the U.S. and the U.K., and one employee noticed a PC acting oddly ... McKinnon maintains that his hacking never caused any harm, and that he only probed the computers looking for evidence that the U.S. government has knowledge of UFOs. more

Mark Selfe adds:

The British man who hacked into the Pentagon's computer network from his 'flat' in North London shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001 is being extradited ... Mckinnon proclaims he was merely searching information pertaining to extra terrestrials! Sort of a DIY X-Files impromptu investigation. Now the Londoner finds himself in more than a tricky situation. The British courts have basically thrown him to the wolves.
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I think the US court will opt to cut a deal with McKinnon ... You never know, it may all turn out alright. His skills may even come in handy one day and benefit the US Government
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Also, it might be prudent, and certainly good PR, for the prosecutors to put their bruised egos aside and go easy on him. After all, the British military, if not the majority of its citizens, have up to now been the most loyal of supporters for "Bush's War on Terror." more

John E. Dunn says McKinnon's being made an example of:

Work this one out ... Security vendors applaud that an e-criminal could find himself behind bars. And UK journalists? Most of them think the case stinks.
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Nobody should rush to excuse McKinnon’s foolishness ... [but] McKinnon is being made an example of ... rather as medieval courts would display the heads of criminals on city gates to act as a deterrent ... not because he’s remotely the most egregious hacker ever to open ports on US military systems (Chinese government-backed hackers do that on most days), but simply because they know who he is and where he is.
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Punish him by all means – he admits his crimes after all - but let’s not pretend that single US military server is one iota safer with McKinnon behind bars. more

Mike Masnick sees both sides:

From the very beginning it had seemed like the US was overhyping the fact that they had tracked down ... McKinnon ... They claimed he had caused millions of dollars of damages, and even called him "the world's biggest hacker." Of course, the details suggest he was more like a big idiot. He got high, decided that the US was hiding secrets on aliens, and hacked into a military computer system to try to find the details.
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He clearly deserves to be punished for it, but he's definitely overplayed his hand as well in response. For years, he's been fighting attempts by the US to extradite him, including bogus claims about how the US government would declare him a terrorist and send him to Gitmo. more

Kevin "Dark Dante" Poulsen is dismissive:

Apparently he was stoned through a lot of it, which explains why most of the intrusions were into Army computers, when everyone knows the Air Force is hiding the UFOs. McKinnon's noble quest for the truth about extraterrestrial life also obliged him to leave this message on an Army computer in 2002: "U.S. 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."

McKinnon is a cause célèbre in Britain. Playing on stereotypes, he's persuaded the more gullible sectors of the British press that American spooks want to ship him to Guantanamo, or put him in prison for 60 years. But McKinnon is a petulant child who refused even the mildest sanctions for crimes that he's largely admitted conducting. more

This Anonymous Coward is incensed:

The UK, acting like the US' ****ing lapdog, again. If I were PM I'd be telling the US government where they can shove their 'special relationship' and their entirely one-sided extradition treaty. Then I'd tell them to put ACTA in the same place. more

Jamie Thom agrees:

The UK-US fast track extradition agreement ... is supposed to be reciprocal however the US have not implemented their end of it. We can not fast track the extradition of US citizens but any UK citizen can be fast tracked. All of this was introduced to "fight terrorism" but has largely been used for cases like this and the NatWest Three.

Secondly our law forbids the extradition of persons to countries where they may face inhuman or unreasonable punishment. As such all states which implement the death penalty fall under this heading. The US should fall under this heading. more

And from Nicolas Monnet, le mot dernier:

This nonsensical BS should be rejected by the European Court of Justice. Unlike the US Supreme court, it's not stacked with crypto-fascists. more

And finally...

• Stephen King, as you've never seen him before
  

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 21 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• The end of Windows predicted by Midori
• FCC net-neutrality-wonks: traffic-shaping open-kimono, plz
• Cuil: Google competitor, or pointless startup?