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."
"Apparently he broke into US military computers to hunt for evidence of a UFO cover-up."
It sounds like an excuse to me.
So is the guy really nutty or is this just an attempt to justify his illegal activities?
Then again, perhaps he was on to something?
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
I don't believe that this guy is the world's biggest hacker. Have you seen Cowboy Neal??? Now that's big!
This guy was looking for UFOs. In Soviet Russia, UFOs look for you!
We all know that if he was an uber-hacker he would have created a Beowulf cluster of all the computers he hacked.
One billion in damages? That number has to be inflated. (Actually the article says 570000 pounds which is only about 1 Million US dollars according to my currency calculator)
The police have apologized to his mother for kicking in her door, but it was the only way they could reach the basement.
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OMG, they finally caught JeffK!?
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
Really? Because he broke into a Pentagon network? That just makes him stupid; if he were really a big hacker, he'd be doing blackhat corporate work. UFOs! Yeah...whatever.
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
He wasn't onto anything. He found nothing. Nothing at all. He did not hack into our databases or steal information. Never happened. Never.
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. ;)
Why's it always gotta be about race?!
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
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.
It's a good thing he didn't download Eminem songs as well. Then he would have been in deep shit.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Don't be too sad for him, he got his wish. He's about to be far more involved with anal probing.
However, in this case TFA on cnn at least, gives a figure of 1300 user accounts deleted in one instance. That probably involved real cost. He wasn't just looking for info, he was also being malicious.
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
The evidence so far is that the guy IS a skript-kiddie, and probably not a very good one at that. If, after countless reviews and endless debate, many Federal agencies are still scoring D or worse on their own evaluations, I cannot find any reason to have any confidence in their ability to secure their systems.
Perhaps, instead of wasting time chasing UFO spotters, they should be putting more time and effort into getting their own house in order. Windows machines are rated for standalone security, not network security, and Windows is only C-class even then. That may be fine for a desktop hosting seriously unimportant files, but I would not regard that as nearly good enough for servers or desktops likely to have files of significance.
For the sorts of establishments we're talking here, I would say that a minimum of B3 on internal security and something comparable for network security should be the minimum for anything beyond the kiosks they've been pushing people onto.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)