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- borez, on 07/15/2009, -3/+36I've been following the Gary McKinnon story for a while now, I think he should be tried in the UK. The US will hang him out to dry for basically exploring machines where the default password had not been changed. If anything he exposed a huge security hole caused by incompetent network mangers. He caused no damage, he didn't delete or alter or abuse any of these systems, he was merely having a look.
IMO: The British government should grow some, step in and say OK enough is enough, he been a bit of a naughty boy, he can spend some time in a British Prison as a slap on the wrist. He does NOT deserve to spend the rest of life in a high security American prison as a terrorist for doing basically ***** all. Period. - Flupp, on 07/15/2009, -1/+18All crimes are the same. Hang people who don't pay parking tickets.
- Iceman21, on 07/15/2009, -0/+15Did you just compare hacking to rape?
***** you. - davzie, on 07/15/2009, -0/+12Hang on guys:
"Maybe you can buy a beer for a rapist too"
Stop being a dick about it and taking things out of proportion. Those machines were almost readily available to login to and look around on. As I said what he did was wrong and I don't condone it but the damages they say he caused seem rather outrageous. No physical damage was done to the computers or software damage (except a few installations of GotoMyPC).
If this guy stood trial in the UK he'd get off with maybe a year in prison for computer crimes. The US want to make a statement and want to make an example out of him and send him down and hype this up to try and cover up the sheer laziness of their IT administrators. Cloning all workstations without a local administration password?! Jeesus even a junior knows not to do that!
They should have been more worried about the many other people from various locations around the world sitting on the computers that he said were on there. Just a netstat showed that up apparantly! - tomjowitt, on 07/15/2009, -0/+12Are you seriosuly asking why people outside the US are sceptical about the US justice system in relation to terrorism charges?
- borez, on 07/15/2009, -1/+12He did break the law by accessing ( I wouldn't even call it hacking ) military computers in the US, but he ain't no terrorist, that's for sure.
- davzie, on 07/15/2009, -0/+10Yeah, you didn't recycle your milk bottle last week? High-time jail for you sir!
- pinchduck, on 07/15/2009, -4/+13A crazy case all around. The dude was looking for evidence of UFOs and exposed the utter lack of security on our national defense networks by the people in charge of national defense. McKinnon should get a fine, and the people in charge of network security should get the stiff sentences. They were completely and utterly derelict in their duty.
- borez, on 07/15/2009, -0/+8Accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002 post 911, causing $700,000 worth of damage and tried under anti-terrorist laws all whilst making an example... He'll be hung out to dry.
- theodenking, on 07/15/2009, -3/+10I do feel sorry for him, it being a crime of stupidity rather than malice. Still, I don't see how it's a human rights issue. He is going to undergo "psychological suffering" wherever he's tried, I imagine it's pretty damn stressful experience. And we're talking about extraditing him to the U. S., not some third world dictatorship - he's going to get a fair trial and a humane sentence. His lawyers are simply trying to use his condition to get him off scot-free because they know a British court wouldn't have the jurisdiction to convict him. I think most criminals have psychological problems, we'd live in a pretty dangerous world if that was a get-out-of-jail-free card.
- roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -1/+8Your comments are biased and ignorant, you'll never see it.
- davzie, on 07/15/2009, -7/+13I feel for this guy. What he did was a stupid idea but something about it makes me want to buy him a beer. There is no way he caused that amount of damage. Their workstations were not passworded in the first place!
- Iceman21, on 07/15/2009, -1/+5Can we get a petition to remove galtshrugged from digg.com, i know the ***** will come back with a new account but i am sick of seeing his tag show up and some stupid comments appear.
- EarlOfLade, on 07/15/2009, -0/+4WTF?
He is a British citizen and can be extradited to a foreign country to stand trial? That is insane! I don't know many, if any other countries with such extradition laws. - Presbyterian, on 07/15/2009, -1/+5Sorry but he knew hacking was wrong and that they were government websites.
- markgl, on 07/15/2009, -3/+7He broke the law, now he's gonna pay for it. He say's he was looking for UFO files and you all believe him outright without questioning? You all on here never believe anyone at first glance.
- oldhick, on 07/15/2009, -4/+7He could have easily caused all that damage.
- 4AntiStupid, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Actually, the case is interesting. Is there any other case where someone went to court to appeal NOT being prosecuted?
- yan89, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Thank god the UK is one of the only country extraditing its own citizens.
- overridemymind, on 07/15/2009, -3/+6Galt, have you EVER recieved a positive digg count? Oh, wait -- nevermind -- douchebags don't get those. Sorry, I forgot.
- a7r3ides, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3wow, first digg user i've blocked. what a ***** too.
also i hope doesn't end up in america, he definitely should be punished for what he did but i think the americans would be too harsh on him, like davzie said. - roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -2/+5We all do.
- tomjowitt, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3True, but we did our imperializing with a certain panache. Slave whip in one hand, gin and tonic in the other.
- roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -1/+4Because it's human nature. What's right and wrong in terms of morals is determined entirely from what people believe. If the majority of people believed that all hackers should be hanged, then hanging hackers would be right and fair. There was a time when the majority of people believed that all black people were nothing more than slaves - although the majority disagrees with this now, at the time it was right in the eyes of the majority.
If you want to have faith in both humanity of today and yourself, you'll tell yourself that you agree with the majority, because you'd be telling yourself that what you believe is right.
Since the majority of people who read your comments on such issues tend to digg them down, it indicates that you don't agree with the majority. Some answer this by stating that digg is overrun by liberals/left wingers/what-not, but if you take a look at the comments there tend to be quite a few others. You won't often see the 'wrong' comments because they have been dugg down by the majority. Though I agree, the majority on digg tend to be liberals, but I think that's a reflection of people in general - the majority of people (certainly out side of America) generally have a liberal mindset.
I believe looking at some government files on the internet in order to see if there are UFOs possibly due to asperger's doesn't require a prison sentence and I'd like to think that the majority would agree. - pinchduck, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3Oh, no offense taken. I'm not talking morality here, however, I'm talking crime & punishment. Legal issues, not moral or ethical. The guy broke into some machines but didn't do any damage. The people who are responsible for those machines should have never, ever let them be so wide open. If someone (or some agency) with malicious intent had infiltrated those systems instead, it could have lead to a major breach or tragedy. Somebody dropped the ball on a nation-wide scale but we'll never find out, and it will never be investigated. Instead the guy who screams that the emperor has no clothes will be hung out to dry.
- roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -1/+4You can block him if you don't want to see his posts.
- UrineEngineer, on 07/15/2009, -0/+3"The crime was committed against the US governemnt so he should be tried in the US"
No, the crimes were committed in the UK, so US prosecutors should come try in the UK under UK laws.
Password guessing and hacking are 2 different things. - Apocrypha, on 07/15/2009, -2/+5The US should thank this guy for pointing out the security flaws in their system.
- markgl, on 07/15/2009, -1/+3yeah, those idiots left the door open so it's ok for the theifs to take everything they have out of their house right?
did you see the way she was dressed? she deserved it right? - Iceman21, on 07/15/2009, -2/+4Hacking??
He accessed a server with a password, the same way any user would. - appleofdischord, on 07/15/2009, -1/+3Yeah, I suspected someone was going to make a rape analogy. That's completely different. The door left open is more appropriate, and I would extend the sentiment to that analogy as well. If you're stupid enough to leave the door open, you practically deserve to have your things screwed around with.
Not to mention, this is the U.S. military we're talking about. They have no excuse to be insecure. - d03boy, on 07/15/2009, -1/+3You are kind of stupid I think.
- inactive, on 07/15/2009, -0/+2Yeah hacking is only a crime if you don't belong to the RIAA or the MPAA or the American Government.
- norman619, on 07/15/2009, -0/+2Morality varies from person to person. The only way we dertermine which is right and which is wrong and which is adopted by the majority of society. As a general rule those morals which are helpful for making living in large grous less problematic tend to be the "good" ones.
- roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -1/+3He claims he saw an image of a 'cigar shaped' UFO that 'definitely wasn't human-made', but didn't bother to screen grab it.
- John6000, on 07/15/2009, -1/+3Why is hacking treated worse than murder these days its stupid
- SuperCow1127, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1Those damages may seem impossible, but think about the necessary post-incident work that needs to be done after a series of compromises. Do you really think the military can just take this guy's word that he didn't do anything but look for pictures? The people who figure out the extent of the intrusion need to be paid.
- tnoy, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1I always wonder how these people end up getting caught. Did they do everything from home? From a public hot-spot, but leave some kind of trail? Leave something indicating personal information?
Finding someone that used a pubic wifi connection always sounds like the same kind of thing those image enhancers TV programs love to make us think are real. - Suricou, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1I imagine the $800,000 figure is just how much the US had to spend as a consequence of his hacking - including the cost of a security audit and the administrator time to close all the holes he had discovered.
- tomjowitt, on 07/15/2009, -3/+4It's a pity the adminstrators didn't have to deal with a malicious hacker who lives in a country that doesn't extradite to the US. It could have been a hell of a lot worse than this.
Throwing the full force of the law at a guy with Aspergers just to prove a point is plain pathetic.
And the UK government needs to grow some balls and tell the US that he's not moving (like that will ever happen). - Suricou, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1But he made the US government look incompetent. Therefor he must SUFFER!
/s - buckrogers1965, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1How is someone in another country hacking our computers a crime? They aren't under our jurisdiction. We hack other peoples computer networks in other countries and illegally warrant-less wire tap our own citizens all the time and we don't put any of our own people in prison for the those crimes.
- Suricou, on 07/16/2009, -0/+1In the US? Good chance he'd be tried as a terrorist, or as a serious threat to national security. The trial would be fair - no doubt he is guilty, he freely admits that - but the sentence would likely be extremally severe. Wouldn't expect to see him out of jail for thirty years at least.
- oldhick, on 07/15/2009, -1/+2Unauthorized access to a computer or network is a crime. It's similar to trespassing. It could be wide open, requiring no authentication and accessing without authorization is still a crime.
- Tarl, on 07/15/2009, -1/+2And when he is released he could write a top selling book and receive job offerings from IT giants.
- roostersheep, on 07/15/2009, -1/+2What do you guys think about the location of the crime/where he should be trialled? The terminals were in the US, he was punching keys on his computer in the UK. How advances in technology have changed things.
- norman619, on 07/15/2009, -1/+2Good thing what YOU think doesn't matter. Fact is he broke US law and now he has to answer for his crime. That's what laws are there for. You are living in the early to mid 80's when jsutice systems did not undersntand how serious it was when someone gains ILLEGAL access to government systems. Today the justice systems the world over understand full well. The UK woudl be demanding the head of a US citizen if he were busted hacking into sensitive UK government systems. He would be facing jail time without a doubt. The US would hand him over w/o a thought. Modern society is a governed by rule of law. Accept this fact and move on.
- minnecrapolis, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Morality may vary from person to person but there is something else we use as a definition of morality.
Laws. And you may not always agree with them but typically (and not always) they are based on a majority moral basis.
The fact that this douchenozzle is using his illness as an excuse to not be extradited is a bunch of *****. He did the crime so he should do his time.
And for those saying that he couldn't have done $800,000 in damages, consider the fact that there were personnel working to track him down. Those hours add up.
His claim that he may become depressed and suicidal is no excuse. How about we just start letting people out of prisons (think murderers and rapists and pedophiles) because by keeping them there they may be depressed and or suicidal. - UrineEngineer, on 07/15/2009, -0/+1Twisted? No, not really. The way I see, the US got off lucky. This guy wanted UFO documents, as opposed to prototype weapons, attack plans, nuclear schematics, to delete everything, etc. If anything, current computer security staff should have been investigated, then upon proof of AOL-level computer skills be promptly fired.
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