Gary McKinnon - Possibly the most famous Computer Hacker Ever & What the World of UFO’s Finally Did to Him

Gary McKinnon is continuing to fight against extradition to the US on hacking offences after losing an appeal last month. Only the British Law Lords now stand between the Scot and a US trial for allegedly breaking into and damaging 97 US government computers between 2001 and 2002 and causing an estimated $700,000 worth of damage, in what US authorities have described as the “biggest military” computer hack ever.

In an interview with the UK Guardian, Gary expressed a lot of personal feelings which were a little sad to read; a few are listed here:

1. I was a man obsessed. I spent two and a half grand in dial-up charges trying to get into the US military systems, eight hours a day, every day, over the course of a year. At first it didn’t feel like addiction, but later I wouldn’t even bother washing or getting dressed.
2. Sometimes there were 70 other hackers from around the world looking at the same screen as me. I used to check them out and see IP addresses from Turkey, China, Holland, all over.
3. I’d still like to make it as a singer-songwriter even though I’m 41.
4. I was charged seven times, with 10 years’ imprisonment on each. The most serious accusation was ‘bringing down the entire military network of Washington’.
5. When I received the extradition threat it was like being eaten from the inside out.
6. Hearing that the New Jersey Authorities want to see me ‘fry’ was like having a 17-tonne hammer waiting to hit me on the head.
7. I fear going to prison for 60 years. I’m terrified of being raped, and sitting there with paedophiles and murderers. I think I’ll rely on my friendliness to get on with people in prison. I’d like to help illiterate prisoners write letters to their families.
8. I believe in UFOs. They were my reason for hacking. As a kid my stepdad would tell me stories of how he saw one in Bonnybridge, near Falkirk, the UFO capital of the world.
9. I discovered names and ranks of non-terrestrial officers. They were all very human-like - although I can’t remember the details as my hard drive was seized by the police.
10. I’m a techno-luddite now. I can’t access my own email address. Other people do it for me.
11. I’m schizophrenic emotionally at the moment. The little boy inside me is shit scared, but the adult side wants to take it on and fight them.
12. My anti-authoritarian streak started to grow when, aged 16 and working at a printer’s, I quit after the boss came down one day and said, ‘Gary you must always stand up at work, never relax, always pretend someone’s watching you.’ That awoke something in me.
13. My advice to my younger self? Don’t hack.
14. I would like to be remembered as the guy who won his court case.

McKinnon allegedly hacked into 97 US government computers, including military and Nasa systems. In total it is claimed McKinnon did around $700,000 worth of damage but McKinnon said that figure is in line with a tendency on the part of organisations to exaggerate damages.

Speaking at the InfoSecurity show in London McKinnon said of his own case: “In order for it to be an extraditable offence I was told you have to have done $5,000 worth of damage to a PC. I found out I had apparently done at least $5,000 worth of damage to every computer.”

Commenting on the high figures, he added: “Now they’re obviously not shopping in PC World, are they?”

Although McKinnon has a clear interest in claiming those damages have been exaggerated, Peter Wood, an ‘ethical hacker’ and penetration tester from First Base Technologies who took part in the InfoSecurity show’s hacker panel, supported the argument that businesses are prone to exaggerating the costs they incur and suffer around a cyber attack.

He said in part this is due to ignorance and a lack of understanding of the issues.

I personally don’t understand the damage unless it is the exposure/threat to potential loss of secret information (regarding UFO’s if Gary is truthful in saying this was all he was after); should the US require to expose the information to the public such a France did lately, or that the UK Ministry of Defence is now doing, then the information that Gary sought, if only ‘UFO’ based, should no longer count as secret information and therefore the ‘damage’, which should really be considered ‘exposure’ would be considered far less serious than if the information is kept secret. However, he would still be called to account for any other information gained in the process of seeking the information he wanted.

According to the Irish Dev site:

“The IT community can’t seem to agree about what would be an appropriate punishment in this case, quite possibly because it’s still unclear about how much damage Gary McKinnon is alleged to have caused, as well as the motivations behind the alleged crime,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Irrespective of where he is tried, let’s hope that if McKinnon is found guilty, it will be based on reliable evidence, and that he will be sentenced appropriately for the offences he is alleged to have committed.” We certainly agree with this approach.

The US, it surprises me, is not thinking of hiring Gary to work for them rather than doing jail time - they did it with the Nazi scientists after WWII after all. What would be a interesting end to an obviously brilliant individual who definitely became obsessed, would be that if he stood trial in the US, serve sentence over a fair amount of years or pay a huge fine, serve community service and, if the authorities wanted to be smart, they could offer him to work for the US government in exchange for a harsher sentence. Even my suggestions sound like a royal mess really.

To get the latest in Gary’s case, go to the ‘Free Gary McKinnon’ blog.