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| Briton faces extradition over hack of US military sites |
| 2005-06-08 |
| A British computer expert accused of carrying out "the biggest military computer hack of all time" has been released on bail by a London magistrates court today as he fights extradition charges to the US. Gary McKinnon, 39, an unemployed systems administrator, is accused of repeatedly hacking into the Pentagon and NASA among 97 US government computers he targeted in a twelve month period in 2001 and 2002. Mr McKinnon was arrested at his home in north London last night by officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit, and appeared before Bow Street Magistrates Court this morning. He was released on £5,000 bail under the condition that he does not access the internet or apply for travel documents. Mr McKinnon's next hearing is on July 27. Janet Boston, for the US government, told the court this morning that Mr McKinnon caused $700,000 worth of damage in a series of attacks designed to disrupt the computer networks of American military installations. Mr McKinnon faces five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, should he be extradited to face trial in America. Ms Boston said Mr McKinnon's actions allowed him to "control the computers". After the hearing, Karen Todner, Mr McKinnon's lawyer, said that he intends to "contest this case most vigorously" and that Mr McKinnon is dismayed that it has taken this long to bring him to court. Mr McKinnon was first arrested in March 2002 but no further action was taken. First, we fix the holes in those systems. Second, we trace to see if he has accomplices. Then when we have time, we get around to nailing this guy. The scale of the accusations against Mr McKinnon was first revealed in two indictments unsealed by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the US Department of Justice in November 2002. At the press conference announcing the charges, Paul J. McNulty, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia called Mr McKinnon's activities "the biggest military computer hack of all time". According to US authorities, Mr McKinnon used software available over the internet to gain access to computer networks used by the US Army, Navy and Air Force. Once inside the systems Mr McKinnon allegedly deleted files, changed passwords and invited other hackers to join him, denying several military bases access to the internet and email. In total, Mr McKinnon is accused of causing damage to computer systems across 14 states of the US. In the most spectacular crimes alleged against Mr McKinnon, he "rendered the network for the Military District of Washington inoperable" for three days, and severely disrupted the operations of a Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey for a month shortly after the September 11 attacks. Staff at Naval Weapons Station Earle, which is responsible for organising supplies to the US Navy's Atlantic fleet, were unable use their computers for a week and could not connect to the internet for a month in September and October 2001. A lot has been tightened up since then. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #2 I'm not sure he's that good. This happened before 9/11 and a lot of government sites were not secured well. No excuse for that, but the urgency wasn't there. Neither was broadband very prevalent. He apparently used one of the spyware packages floating around the hacker bulletin boards once he got in to the systems. As a sys admin he knew what to look for, but so would any sys admin. A whole lot of things have changed since 9/11 re: computer security on DOD systems. |
| Posted by: rkb 2005-06-08 17:03 |
| #1 If he is as good as all that but still unemployed, somebody (not the Rantburg somebody, of course) has been keeping a very close eye on him since the case file was opened. Were I he, I would feel more than a bit paranoid, and not at all sanguine about my future. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-06-08 16:46 |