Posted by Virus Bulletin on Apr 4, 2007
UK man should face trial in States despite threats, say judges.
Greg McKinnon, the British hacker accused of breaking into NASA and US military networks while apparently investigating UFO activity, has lost his latest court case attempting to block his extradition to the US. McKinnon admits accessing several US networks, in many cases using unchanged default passwords, but denies several charges of deleting data and damaging systems.
The hacking took place in 2001 and 2002, and McKinnon was first arrested in November 2002. Although he admits some of the accusations, he has fought extradition, initially granted by the UK government, on the grounds that the US authorities hope to treat the hacker as a terrorist, threatening him with sentences of up to 60 years and apparently telling him he 'would fry'. McKinnon insists his hacking was not malicious, motivated entirely by curiosity and enabled by the lax security of the systems.
Although his first challenge to the decision to extradite him was rejected as groundless by High Court judges yesterday, McKinnon still has further avenues to contest the chilling prospect of a terror trial, with an appeal to the House of Lords a possible next step.
Posted on 04 April 2007 by Virus Bulletin
