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Hacker McKinnon To Be Extradited To US
Vainglorious Coward writes "When UK hacker and Asperger's sufferer Gray McKinnon lost the judicial review of his case it seemed likely that he would be extradited to the US to face charges of hacking almost a hundred systems causing $700,000 worth of damage. Today the UK home secretary rejected his last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition adding that 'his extradition to the United States must proceed forthwith.' McKinnon's relatives are expressing concerns for his health, with his lawyer going so far as to claim that extradition would make the 43-year-old's death 'virtually certain.'"
His name is Gary, not Gray. Stellar editing as always, slashdot staff.
Sturgeon was an optimist.
The article itself makes it clear in the very first sentence that his relatives expect him to commit suicide before he can be extradited. The slashdot summary would rather imply that the evil America would be killing him.
Sturgeon was an optimist.
What he did didn't cause much damage at all. The guy was an amateur whose only way to break into computers was guessing passwords. No tools, just guessing. Any account that he broke in had a password that was so weak it could be _guessed_. And since these accounts belonged to the US Army, the thing is embarrassing beyond belief to the US Army. His crime wasn't hacking into computers, his crime was embarrassing the US Army.
The "huge damages" he caused where the fact that the US Army had to change their ridiculous unsafe passwords to something safe. The US Army just cannot admit that an amateur looking for UFOs didn't hack into their computers, but just managed to _guess_ dozens of passwords. So they have to throw the book at him to safe face.
Except that his condition was the central issue in his judicial review so it has plenty to do with this. I was initially going to write "alleged Asperger's sufferer" - would that have made you happier?
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
Actually it does. Many people on the autistic spectrum do not respond well to changes in their environment and absolutely must have a high level of control over their environment. Extradition will be a double whammy for him. It creates a special hardship that (again depending on just where he is on the spectrum) could be considered no less cruel and unusual than it would be to put a non-suffere in a room with a painfully loud siren and strobe lights 24/7
US Supreme Court decides if its Cruel and Unusual.
In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), Justice Brennan wrote, "There are, then, four principles by which we may determine whether a particular punishment is 'cruel and unusual'."
The "essential predicate" is "that a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity," especially torture.
"A severe punishment that is obviously inflicted in wholly arbitrary fashion."
"A severe punishment that is clearly and totally rejected throughout society."
"A severe punishment that is patently unnecessary."
It was a US Marine plane. A USMC EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 163045, from VMAQ-2 caused the Cavalese cable-car disaster on 3 February 1998, accidentally cutting the cables of a ski-lift in Italy during a low level flight in mountainous terrain and killing 20 civilians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalese_cable-car_disaster
"Italian prosecutors wanted the four Marines to stand trial in Italy, but an Italian court recognized that NATO treaties gave jurisdiction to U.S. military courts. They stood trial, were found not guilty and the pilot and copilot were kicked out of the Marines. One served time in military prison.
The two men were court-martialed a second time for obstruction of justice and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, because they had destroyed a videotape recorded from the plane on the day of the accident. They were found guilty in May 1999; both were dismissed from the service and the pilot received a six month prison term. He was released after four and a half months for good behavior.
By February 1999, the victims' families had received $65,000 per victim as immediate help by the Italian government, which was reimbursed by the U.S. government. In May 1999, the U.S. Congress rejected a bill that would have set up a $40 million compensation fund for the victims. In December 1999, the Italian legislature approved a monetary compensation plan for the families ($1.9 million per victim). NATO treaties obliged the US government to pay 75% of this compensation, which it did."
So...Italy let them go, there were trials, one was found guilty of something, tossed in prison, career destroyed, felon, all that and the families got 1.965 million US each.
Please don't compare natural sciences with social sciences so freely. There are certainly biological indicators supporting the Autism diagnosis, particularly the old studies of monozygotic twins raised apart. I haven't heard any extremely strong neurophysiological evidence about it, however. This guy's paper seems to sum that up as well: http://www.mattababy.org/~belmonte/Publications/Papers/98_Garreau/ . I think this guy has real concerns as a layman about the underlying causes of Asbergers. I think he is quite incorrect in that. But it has nothing to do with him completely dismissing science, and making that argument is disingenuous. That is not to say that I have any real insight into the issue either, of course. All I am saying, is quit running your mouth off.
So you haven't heard of any strong neurophysiological basis for Aspergers. Well I guess then it just does't exist. Silly me for running me mouth off and looking at the scientific literature. Seriously maybe you should research the literature first. hmmm?
Ok well to get you started:
Neurophysiological evidence for cortical discrimination impairment of prosody in Asperger syndrome. Neuroscience Letters, Volume 383, Issue 3, 5 August 2005, Pages 260-265
T. Kujala, T. Lepistö, T. Nieminen-von Wendt, P. Näätänen and R. Näätänen
Neurophysiological responses to face, facial regions and objects in adults with Asperger's syndrome: An ERP investigation. International Journal of Psychophysiology, Volume 63, Issue 3, March 2007, Pages 283-293
Kate O'Connor, Jeff P. Hamm and Ian J. Kirk
The neurophysiological correlates of face processing in adults and children with Asperger’s syndrome
Brain and Cognition, Volume 59, Issue 1, October 2005, Pages 82-95
Kate O’Connor, Jeff P. Hamm and Ian J. Kirk
Abnormal imitation-related cortical activation sequences in Asperger's syndrome
Nobuyuki Nishitani, Sari Avikainen, Riitta Hari
Annals of Neurology
Volume 55, Issue 4 , Pages558 - 562
2004 American Neurological Association
Here is the abstract for this one:
Abstract
Subjects with Asperger's syndrome (AS) are impaired in social interaction and imitation, but the underlying brain mechanisms are poorly understood. Because the mirror-neuron system (MNS) that matches observed and executed actions has been suggested to play an important role in imitation and in reading of other people's intentions, we assessed MNS functions in 8 adult AS subjects and in 10 healthy control subjects during imitation of still pictures of lip forms. In the control subjects, cortical activation progressed in 30 to 80-millisecond steps from the occipital cortex to the superior temporal sulcus, to the inferior parietal lobe, and to the inferior frontal lobe, and finally, 75 to 90 milliseconds later, to the primary motor cortex of both hemispheres. Similar activation sites were found in AS subjects but with slightly larger scatter. Activation of the inferior frontal lobe was delayed by 45 to 60 milliseconds and activations in the inferior frontal lobe and in the primary motor cortex were weaker than in control subjects. The observed abnormal premotor and motor processing could account for a part of imitation and social impairments in subjects with AS.
More to the point, are the people who put into place the security of the computer systems also being tried for either (a) failing to put adequate security in place or (b) aiding and abetting a criminal to break in by not ensuring the security was good enough? If not, why not?:
As to why Asperger's suffering has to do with it. Ever tried to live as one? It ain't easy; particularly the tendency to focus on one thing trait means that it is very easy to not realise what is going on around you. And also the trait to accept as truth the first information on something and to reject new information on that subject (the trait of not liking/being unable to stand change) - even if the new information is correct.
Also, if the recent increase in violence is being blamed on video games, consider that the film War Games does a nice job of glamorizing breaking into a computer system and shows that breaking into computer systems for non-malicious reasons is ok. (Not saying that he's seen the film, but if he has, his logic tells him that there is no problem with cracking into a computer system looking for innocent information - he'll be glorified at the end of it.)