Slashdot Mirror
World's Biggest Hacker Held
Hieronymus Howard writes "The London Evening Standard is reporting that the "worlds biggest computer hacker" has been arrested in London.
Gary McKinnon, 39, was seized by the Met's extradition unit at his Wood Green home.
The unemployed former computer engineer is accused of causing the U.S. government $1 billion of damage by breaking into its most secure computers at the Pentagon and NASA. He is likely to be extradited to America to face eight counts of computer crime in 14 states and could be jailed for 70 years. Apparently he broke into U.S. military computers to hunt for evidence of a UFO cover-up."
From what I've been able to tell over the years, the damages in these cases is almost completely made up. The FBI loves to post huge numbers on cases like these because it makes them look important. More realistic estimates based on administrator time and business lost due to the servers being unavailable tend to be far lower.
I read the internet for the articles.
To be fair, the cost of finding and fixing trhe holes should not be included. After all, it was broken before he got there.
Not to mention that they should be found and fixed regardless of any intrusions.
=Smidge=
Not to mention trying to figure out where all those holes in security came from and patching them.
Yeah, that makes sense. Pawn the cost of fixing your security holes on the guy who found them.
If my house ever gets burglarized, I'm going to try to get the burglar to pay the contractor to fix the "hole" the burglar got in through.
Maybe it's just me, but any device connected to any other device is no longer to be considered as secure.
I would have guessed that the gubbermint's "most secure computers" would be airgapped, but apparently that is not the case. Or, perhaps, the author of TFA is being just a bit sensational and overdramatic. ;)
"Most of the alleged hacking took place in 2001 and 2002. At one stage the US thought it was the work of the al Qaeda terror network. "
OK, so this must have been some serious stuff going down for them to think that he was al Qaeda. Or was it?
"Friends said that he broke into the networks from his home computer to try to prove his theory that the US was covering up the existence of UFOs. "
Uh oh, we're talking mentally off here.
"He is accused of a series of hacking offences including deleting "critical" files from military computers. The US authorities said the cost of tracking him down and correcting the alleged problems was more than £570,000. The offences could also see him fined up to £950,000 if found guilty on all charges. "
Here it comes, the big bill for this mentally off "al Qaeda" operative. "Lesse, captain, I spent my lunch hour running a scan." "Aha! We'll bill that time as worth £50,000!"
"Prosecutor Paul McNulty alleged that McKinnon, known online as "Solo," had perpetrated "the biggest hack of military computers ever". He was named as the chief suspect after a series of electronic break-ins occurred over 12 months at 92 separate US military and Nasa networks.
Ah, it gets better. This guy must have been hot stuff! They think he's some kind of master criminal or something. Or al Qaeda maybe.
"It is alleged that he used software available on the internet to scan tens of thousands of computers on US military networks from his home PC, looking for machines that might be exposed due to flaws in the Windows operating system.
Many of the computers he broke into were protected by easy-to-guess passwords, investigators said. In some cases, McKinnon allegedly shut down the computer systems he invaded. "
WHAT?! He's just a script kiddie??! All this fuss over some guy port scanning Windows boxes??
"The charge sheet alleges that he hacked into an army computer at Fort Myer, Virginia, where he obtained codes, information and commands before deleting about 1,300 user accounts.
Other systems he hacked into included the Pentagon's network and US army, navy and air force computers. "
So let me get this straight. Some nutcase into UFOs uses script kiddie technology to port scan Windows boxes and somehow manages to get into the Pentagon and the military? Are you kidding me? Either they are running Windows boxes with easy to guess passwords and insecure networks, or else they should have charged him with a lot worse stuff than standard port scanning. Or maybe the reporter has no clue what he did, but this doesn't add up.
The only thing that does make sense is the U.S. military thinking a script kiddie UFO chaser was a master criminal at work...
Unless the Pentagon and NASA have VERY VERY silly systems, their *really* important computers are simply *not* accessible to hackers. I really can't believe that truly ensitive systems wouldn't just be air-gapped from the world.
Sure, it's possible to hack intelligence agencies but it I'd put money on it failing to get you the really juicy stuff!
The guy is smart enough to cobble together scripts and guess passwords so he can get into computers run by US Military Intelligence ("The World's Biggest Oxymoron", by the way)...
And what does he look for? UFO information! Now he's facing 70 years in prison.
Come on, that must be the equivalent of tipping a Coca-Cola machine onto yourself.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Sorry. But snooping around a house, checking the door, finding it unlocked and entering without homeowner permission is still illegal.
--Kevin
Except that if it ISN'T a crime where I did the action is it still a crime? IE if I crack a US CD in the UK am I inviolation of the DMCA? What if that CD was in a drive on a PC in the USA? The question comes down to at which computer did the crime take place? The one he used, or the one he broke into? If the argument is the doing what he did at his computer is a crime, then UK should have jurisdiction with all the leagal-ese the comes with it. If, on the other hand, the crime takes place at the site of the infiltrated computer, how do you know what the laws are of a computer your using when you don't know physically where that computer is, and so can't really do anything with it, etc.
Yep. It's still illegal. But while it's illegal for a burglar to enter your unlocked house, you're no less of an idiot for leaving it unlocked. And exaggerating the scope of the break-in ("he diabolically circumvented the integrity of the house by adjusting the rotational position of the entry affordance!") has as more to do with CYA (in the case of the homeowner, perhaps to collect insurance) than it has to do with the guilt of the burglar.
Dear Person,
As it turns out, that is not correct. According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary the word hacker has two meaning in relating to computers. One of them is a person who is an expert with computer and/or someone who peruses computer knowledge for its own sake, the other is a person who uses their skill with computers to gain unauthorized access to systems.
This is not an uncommon situation in English, for a word to have two related connotations, one positive and one negative: For example the word exploit. When used as a verb it can be used to mean a full positive use of something, such as to exploit one's talents means to make full use of your talents in a good way to achieve a goal. It can also be used in a negative way, such as to exploit illegal immigrant financial gain means to take unfair advantage of someone's position to your own selfish benefit. Both uses are not only accepted, but common. It is the context that dictates the meaning of the word.
The same is true with the word hacker. Your special interest sites like Slashdot do not set the stage for the English language, nor are they the authority on its correct usage. Thus in our article using hacker to describe someone who uses computer skill to gain illegal entry to systems is in every way as correct and accurate and a skilled programmer calling themselves a hacker. Thus we will not be issuing a correction, as there is nothing to correct.
In the future if you believe a word is being used incorrectly, I suggest you make a quick check with a dictionary to ensure that you are not confused. There are several online websites including www.dictionary.com, www.oed.com, and www.webster.com that will allow you to look up the definitions of words with ease.
Sincerely,
Editor-in-Chief person.