A Briton wanted in the US for what US authorities call the biggest successful hacking effort against American military computer networks was freed on bail Wednesday after a court appearance.
The court heard allegations that Gary McKinnon, 39, illegally accessed 97 US government computers between February 2001 and March 2002, causing US$700,000 in damages. US officials said two years ago that no classified material was obtained.
Lawyers for McKinnon, who was first arrested in the case nearly three years ago and then released, said he would fight extradition. It was not immediately clear why US officials took so long to seek extradition, but it is exceedingly rare to ask foreign governments to hand over defendants in computer-crime cases.
PHOTO: AP
In previous major cyber crimes, such as the release of the "Love Bug" virus in May 2000 by a Filipino computer student and attacks in February 2000 by a Canadian youth against major American e-commerce Web sites, US authorities have waived interest in extraditing hacker suspects.
McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, confirmed a published report that McKinnon was motivated by a desire to expose the ease with which a civilian could breach government computer systems and by a strong conviction that the US government was concealing evidence of UFOs.
Janet Boston, acting for the US government, told Bow Street Magistrates' Court that McKinnon installed unauthorized software on computers used by NASA, the Defense Department, the Army, Navy and Air Force that permitted him to "completely control the computers."
"In one instance, the US Army's military district of Washington network became inoperable," she said.
US prosecutors said McKinnon hacked into military computers nationwide running Microsoft Windows software that were left vulnerable to a design flaw for which Microsoft had issued repairs three years earlier.
After each break-in, McKinnon discovered computer accounts with passwords the same as each employee's username then installed popular remote-control software called "RemotelyAnywhere."
But McKinnon blundered badly by supplying his girlfriend's e-mail address when he downloaded his copy of RemotelyAnywhere from the software's manufacturer, leading authorities to him once they uncovered the break-ins.
McKinnon, who waved and blew a kiss toward his parents as he entered court, spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
Police arrested the former computer engineer, known online as "Solo," at his home in Wood Green, north London, Tuesday evening under an extradition warrant, the Metropolitan Police said.
When the case was first revealed in late 2002, US officials said McKinnon faced up to 10 years in prison plus fines of US$250,000 on each of eight counts.
District Judge Christopher Pratt set several conditions for the US$9,200 bail, including that McKinnon be barred from applying for any travel documents and from using any computer equipment that gives access to the Internet.
In arguing for low bail, defense lawyer Mohammed Khamisa emphasized McKinnon's lack of prior criminal convictions.
He also told the court that since McKinnon's initial arrest, he had made no attempt to leave the country or evade the attention of authorities since being released.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS