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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.'"
...and Asperger's sufferer...
This has NOTHING to do with this issue.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
That figure is the alleged cost of upgrading the security of these systems after the attack, not the result of any 'damage' that he may have caused. I'm not in any way condoning what he has done and Asperger's is no excuse but the desktops that he accessed were often Internet facing with blank or weak administrator passwords, seems to me like there should be some sysadmins on trial with him for gross negligence.
My analogy (no car sorry) would be that it's like a robbed bank having to spend $700,000 on a vault after realising that keeping the money in wooden boxes in the back yard is inadequate.
For all intensive porpoises your a bunch of rediculous loosers
He didn't "break in to a highly sensitive military computer network". He leaned against the door and found it opened. If he actually got into any sensitive areas, then the ones that belong into court are the incompetent idiots who couldn't even keep an amateur with two much time on his hands out of their networks.
Isn't his death already virtually certain?
Sorry, it's more like someone going into people's homes while they're out if they left a door unlocked. It's trespass, it's an invasion of privacy, but there are no grounds for claiming that the person caused massive damage just by entering or leaving a note on the table. And if it's a business, bank or government building, whoever was responsible for security should get in more trouble for the intrusion than the person who committed an act of trespass.
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.
"He tried to quench that 'thirst' by breaking in to a highly sensitive military computer network directly or indirectly depended on by many people in harms way every day. Sounds a hell of a lot like it SHOULD fall under terrorism laws."
Holy batcaves Batman. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! Let's start with a definition of Terrorism:
terrorism - The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious.
or, how about Terrorist:
terrorist - a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells.
Now, please explain exactly how what he did is in ANY way associated with terrorism. No really. Some morons are modding you up as interesting and you are not even close to the mark here.
strike
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
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.)