Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
The recent case of Gary McKinnon has highlighted problems wih the ongoing governmental programmes which demonises "hackers" in order to "up the ante" - and guarantee funding to watch all of us - forever.
The real problem is that the US Military installed commercial software for the remote control of PCs.without changing the default passwords
The US MILITARY were not bothered enough - or not intelligent enough - to ensure that a commonly known vulnerability and exploit was patched in order to protect the confidentiallity, integrity and access to their systems.
For two years ...
You't think that sort of thing was important - especially in the age of "Homeland Security" and the "imminent threat of terrorist attacks" - I wonder if Osama and his crew noticed the gaping security hole?
But the US Military didn't - and then some non-terrorist hacker was caught using the most basic of hacks to subvert the public portions of milnet.
Now the US Government want their pound of flesh - extradition and imprisonment in the USA, a hostile and foreign country - for up to 70 years.
This would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" - to be locked up in an American prison thousands of miles from friends and family (who would probably end up on a "no-fly" list anyhow) - for exploiting the ignorance and stupidity of military systems administators.
Gary McKinnon might be many things.
He might have pulled off the "greatest military hack" of all time in the eyes of the media - but many of his peers have a slightly different opionion of him - opinions that make it plain we are NOT dealing with some super-criminal quasi-terrorist uber-hacker.
There are laws in the UK to deal with this kind of trans-national data crime - and it is important that they are used to maintain national sovereignity - especially in the face of the US led "war on terror" where we are all are potential suspects and anyone could suffer "extraordinary rendition" if their name is similar to a name on the ever-increasing list of secret databases that watch our every move.
The UK should not extradite Gary McKinnon to the US.
Not just because the US military were incompetent, and not just because it would be a "cruel and unusual punishment" or for any of the other reasons that anyone has suggested,
It is because the UK should try, sentence and punish Gary McKinnon in the UK - in a jury of his peers, in the UK, where he is not seen as a "foreign combatant" - and to ensure that any other UK citizen accused in the "war on terror" is not whisked away at a whim by the US government.
Anything else would be nothing more than an attempt at scapegoating a hacker for governmental shortcomings.
The money spent on this case would be better spent on training systems administrators and ensuring that MILITARY systems do not have default passwords and vulnerabilities that last for TWO YEARS.
"Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?".
It was a good question in 1967 - it is still relevant now.
Tags: gary mckinnon, hackers, military, military hacks, military intelligence, oxymoron, rees-mogg, free gary