Thursday, July 13, 2006

DO YOU REMEMBER HIM

Hacker Gary McKinnon, first arrested in 2002. I remember him well.

"Mr McKinnon is said to have accessed 53 US Army computers, 26 US Navy computers, 16 NASA computers, one US Department of Defense computer and one US Air Force computer. "

You can read the whole story here, 'Hacker fears 'UFO cover-up' . It is an awesome tale.

I first read of Mr. McKinnon on the site of 'Abbas Halai' and it fascinated me, the way he was able to just talk to who ever he wanted to and visit various places in what should have been, to say the least, password protected.

So I went on a quest, to try to find out what happened to him after he was caught and this is what I found.

In February 2006 America was asking the UK to extradite him so that he could be tried in the US. His sentense could be as much as 60 years.

His lawyers want US authorities to give reassurances he will not get a military order and face being sent to Guantanamo Bay with no prospect of parole.

He is asking to be tried in his own country because he feels like he will get a lesser sentence there.

He probably would get a lesser sentence, after all it wasn't his government that was caught with their pants down.
Once again someone has proved how slack and inadequate our own security is. What's it going to take before they step up to the plate and stop being lazy.

I don't think that Mr. McKinnon did anything that any other really good 'brainiac hacker' like him couldn't have done.

I think he should be tried in the US and here is were I open my big mouth and insert my foot as always. Here is my sentence for him.

I think the government should take a lesson from the movie 'Catch Me If You Can' and offer the man a job instead of throwing all of that knowledge away.
Maybe if we had someone like him working for the government this wouldn't have happened in the first place.

The last I heard the UK agreed to the extradition.

20 Comments:

Blogger S A J Shirazi said...

You seem to be too kind while suggesting punishment for a criminal. No?

8:43 PM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Shirazi,
Yes, I know it, but I don't think he meant any harm to the equipment and he was doing the same thing that many other hacker were trying to do. So what if a someone that was working for a country that was an enemy of th US instead of someone that was looking for the truth about ufo's.
The truth is, in one way he may of did us a favor, may it will make our government realize that we need to beef up our security.

2:11 AM  
Blogger Medio Pomelo said...

I started to write a comment but then I got tangled up in my own reasoning: the dilemma is too big. I should decide on which side I'm standing first :)

4:10 AM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Dora,
O.K. you think about and let me know?

4:15 AM  
Blogger Medio Pomelo said...

OK. I think it would send out a very wrong message to the citizens of Planet Hacker to give a top job to someone who has broken the law big time. And that is a priority over the wasted grey material in my opinion. Just because the guy is a genius (and a quiet lunatic I think) doesn't justify his obsession of breaking into systems where he shoudnt have. He must have given a good shock of their lifetimes to the people responsible for IT security in these gov. sites but I imagine they have been doing absolutely everything since then to fix the leak and prevent future hacking. So yeah, agreeing with Shirazi.

5:16 AM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Dora,
Somehow I thought you would say that.
That is the whole idea, I want to see what everyone thinks.

Glad to hear from you.

5:25 AM  
Blogger Medio Pomelo said...

:) why did you think so? I mean, even I didn't know what to think of it for the best part of the day. Is "law abiding" written on my forehead? ;) I really liked this post because it made me think hard and I had to force myself to take a side.

7:10 AM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Hi Dora,
Glad that you came back to give your opinion.
No you're not transparent. I think most people would think that he should be repremanded.
The part I wrote about the movie 'Cacth me if you can' and letting Mr. McKinnon off completely was just a little levety on my part. You just don't know me yet.
I think he should be punished.
But I don't think he should go to prison for the rest of his life. There are several parts of the transcript of his interview that really bother me.
........................
Here is a couple of them,

SK: So you're saying that you found computers which had a high-ranking status, administrator status, which hadn't had their passwords set - they were still set to default?

GM: Yes, precisely.

I want to be tried in my own country, under the Computer Misuse Act, and I want evidence brought forward, or at least want the Americans to have to provide evidence in order to extradite me, because I know there is no evidence of damage
........................

I think that if the US claims damages they can make the charges heavier, They want this man gone, because our government is so embarrased that they were irresponsible.
They want to hide him, do away with him, I'm not so sure it's because of what he did or if it's because he made a ass of us and our security.

I keep thinking that if the security was so bad, what if an enemy had hacked in before Mckinnon. I sutter at the thought.

McKinnon, claims that he was going in search of UFO technology, 'free energy' technology and found it. But we're not using it to help our own people.

I don't know if that part is true or not but I wouldn't put it past my own country to hurt it's own people in order to keep linning it's own pockets.

5:51 AM  
Blogger Neel Arurkar said...

Yes, they should go the Catch Me If You Can way :-)

6:25 AM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Haha, so far me and you are the only ones that kind of like that idea. Looks to me like we need someone like him.

6:27 AM  
Blogger Sam!! said...

Dnt worry Exseno my vote is also with U n Neel:)

Hope u doing fine there.

Takecare.

8:10 AM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Samrina,
Horay, that makes 3.

8:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

why not give him a job in our govenment??? what about the guy that eluded the fbi for years a teenager who was the best counterfiter there is who do u think has made all of the scans that are in our checks now??? him watch the movie catch me if u can. starring leonardo decapreo?

2:15 PM  
Blogger Id it is said...

This is a very controversial subject you've hit on. If we do give him the job you suggest at the end of your post, what message does that send to other offenders like him? They'd start perfecting their hacknig skills ; at some time get caught, and the expect to get a government job at the end of it like McKinnon will if we were to go by what you suggest.

Punishment is not merely a punitive measure it also a preventive. It publically states what is acceptable and what isn't in a civilized ociety. It serves to stall future offenders mid path by setting an example of what could happen to them if they continued with their misdeeds.

Interesting post.

1:11 PM  
Blogger andy said...

If it takes a crook to hack into that much classified information, then I say as you do. EMPLOY him, but under the strictest of scrutiny. Nobody should be sent to Guantanamo Bay (where there is no trial or anything dealing with the American justice system). Let him be tried in a real court of law. I agree with others that you should send a message to others that seek to do harm to us, but NOT GUANTANAMO BAY, don't get me started on that. I hope I haven't caused an uproar within your blogging community....

4:22 PM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Andy,
If you knew me better you would know that, My comment section is open to all comments a good debate never hurt anyone. lol

4:46 PM  
Blogger EXSENO said...

Id It Is,
And I agree with you for the most part, but every once in awhile there have been acceptions made.

Have you seen the movie 'Catch Me If You Can'. It's a true story and very interesting. The young man was I believe only 17 when he started breaking the law. He must have looked much older.
He was finally caught by the Feds and he was thrown into jail, but after a short while they realized that they needed his knowledge. And they offered him a deal to work for them.

8:49 AM  
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5:10 PM  

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