Gary McKinnon Extradited
The subject of Gary McKinnon has come up here before - because it looks like he is getting a bum rap for what he did.
Now - finally - the appeals process is exhausted and the news today is that UK hacker loses extradition fight - not that there was much chance of the government changing their minds of course.
Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, 41, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers.Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.
At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued he had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights.
His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail.
He would also face a long prison sentence, "in the region of 45 years" and may not be allowed to serve part of the sentence at home in the UK, Edmund Lawson QC said.
The question now is - how much of the trial will be publicised and whether they bother to mention that the sys-admins of these sites failed to change the default password on a piece of commercial software - or whether they sweep inconvenient facts under the carpet in the name of "national security"?
Strikes me the whole thing is a complete waste of time - a fine example of "security theatre" which will end in a showtrial and maximum publicity - while meanwhile hostile cyber-criminals and hacktivists will continue to make the Internet a battlefield every time something racks up international tension.
Wake up Department of Homeland Security!! There really are people out there who want to harm you!!
But from all appearences Gary McKinnon was not one of them ...
Tags: gary mckinnon, homeland security, incompetence, security theatre, dhs