NASA hacker loses case against extradition
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.
04 April 2007
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