Hacker Trashes U.S. Army PCs; Faces 70 Years

British computer hacker Gary McKinnon is one step closer to standing trial in the United States.

In 2002, Gary McKinnon was arrested by British police after the U.S. Department of Justice accused the man of breaking into American government computer systems. All in all, McKinnon is accused of hacking into computers belonging to the Pentagon, NASA, and the U.S. Army and Navy, amounting to USD $700,000 in damages. Now, after the British Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has decided not to press any charges against McKinnon, he will likely be extradited to the United States to stand trial.

According to Reuters, McKinnon and his legal team wanted to stand trial in Britain because he would probably face a shorter sentence. If tried and convicted in America, McKinnon will face up to 70 years behind bars. After review by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the British government decided McKinnon needed to face his accusers in the country where his actions took place. "These were not random experiments in computer hacking," said Alison Saunders, head of the CPS Organized Crime Division, "but a deliberate effort to breach U.S. defense systems at a critical time which caused well documented damage."

Throughout his ordeal, McKinnon has maintained that he is just a simple computer enthusiast who became curious about extraterrestrial life on Earth. He claimed his journeys through U.S. government computer systems were only an attempt to satisfy that curiosity. In reality, McKinnon is being accused of bringing down the U.S. Army's Military District of Washington network for 24 hours, which includes over 2,000 computers.

While the DPP decision brings McKinnon one step closer to trial in the U.S., he does have one last shot at staying in Britain. McKinnon has Asperger's Syndrome, and a review of his case involving Britain’s State Department regarding that illness could keep him at home. "Mr. McKinnon will still remain in the United Kingdom as the judicial review proceedings against the (U.K.) Secretary of State remain outstanding and we are hopeful that those proceedings will be successful," said Kaim Todner, one of McKinnon's lawyers.

Despite his illness, breaking into government computer systems is a serious crime. To do it not once, but at least four times makes it hard to believe that McKinnon’s actions were to satiate his curiosity about aliens instead of malicious acts against a foreign government. We'll be sure to keep you posted on Gary McKinnon and his legal battle in the coming months.

Tom's Hardware...

 

I think he was doing them a favor, showing them how weak the systems are.

Well, I feel sorry for him, 70 years is along time, but he might get out before then.

 

I don't think that he should get in trouble, he was only looking for aliens. Besides, how could he of caused 700k worth of damage..i highly doubt he did it by just looking for proof. Not like he used any of the info to bomb the u.s.

He should be awarded.

 

If he can hack the government computers, he would most likely be offered some sort of second option, to help the government for less time. Obviously if he can hack the computers, he can sure tell the steps so that it could be avoided in the future.

 

this guy should get 700k extra a year if i could do that, the goverments are douchbags.

 

thats amazing, i feel bad for him

 

damn man. poor guy.

 

Wow, Well our Army should not be such pussy's when it comes to Cyber

 

lol

 

This whole story is wack, I've watched a few videos and interviews about this.

-He was tried and punished already by the British, he shouldn't be punished again here in the US.

-He hardly did any actual hacking. He used a program similar to WinVNC to take over the mouse and keyboard functions of any computer he wanted to take over because EVERY COMPUTER HE HACKED HAD THE DEFAULT ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD, WHICH WAS NO PASSWORD. He did no hacking, cracking, brute forcing, exploiting..nothing. He just wrote a program that scanned the network for PC's, and then generated a list of exploitable PC's that had no password. Fucking government. Makes me want to rage thinking we can even punish anyone for that degree of stupidity, lazyness, and lack of basic security on government PC's. Why the fuck does the government even use PC's anyway? Linux existed then..

 

70 years for hacking...
Where is the world going to?

 

This is why I don't hack haha.
70 years is rough, but he deserves it.

 

70 years is a bit harsh, I mean someone was eventually going to try to do this, it doesn't take a brilliant hacker to think of what he did. Lucky it only cost 700k, it could have been much worse.

 

The United States is involved in various wars and has troops stationed all over the world. We can't have 'curious people' controlling or removing one of the Army's major commands.

 

the government shoudld be thanking him.. because i bet now they have a stronger system

 

I doubt he did any damage close to that amount. As usual its an over-exaggeration. The government are dumbasses. If any average joe could hack into thier system, I doubt that the software and hardware was worth 700k

I hope so at least.

 

i think they should use him.. to work with the government

 

How old is he know, anyone know?

 

I think exactly the same. They should work on their protection system ^_^
Let's hope he gets out, depends on how old is he... brrr

 

That just goes to show how rubbish their systems are if someone can hack into them that easily, maybe it was a heads up for them.