Alleged Hacker Lauri Love To Be Extradited To US (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: An autistic man suspected of hacking into U.S. government computer systems is to be extradited from Britain to face trial, a court has ruled. Lauri Love, 31, who has Asperger's syndrome, is accused of hacking into the FBI, the U.S. central bank and the country's missile defense agency. Mr Love, from Stradishall, Suffolk, has previously said he feared he would die in a U.S. prison if he was extradited. Earlier, his lawyer said his alleged hacking had "embarrassed" U.S. authorities. Tor Ekeland said the U.S. government "had very, very bad security and these hacks utilized exploits that were publicly-known for months." Mr Love's lawyers said he could face up to 99 years in prison if convicted of the hacking offenses. Mr Love's defense team argues his depression and Asperger's syndrome mean he should not be sent abroad, but U.S. prosecutors say he is using his mental health issues as an excuse to escape justice.

Comments

Title is wrong.

[Wizy]

The ruling is that he can be extradited. He will be appealing this, and if that appeal fails he will be appealing to the EU Court of Human Rights.

He is not getting extradited just yet.

99 years?

[Anonymous Coward]

He would have been better off murdering a few people.

Strange

[invictusvoyd]

U.S. government "had very, very bad security and these hacks utilized exploits that were publicly-known for months.

And so do the people running OS's having backdoors of the agencies .. strange..

No good dead goes unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll never understand why these people who expose flaws in infrastructure should be prosecuted just because they are predisposed to find such flaws. They should be treated with respect like cops treat K9's. They sniff things out. It is in their nature. Why not give them a medal for exposing the incompetence at the very least. Better then being exposed to the US usual (and probably incorrect) suspects of China and Russia.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he should have gotten permission if he was doing a good deed.

How would you feel if someone was walking in a parking lot, testing all car door handles to see if they are locked? Just a good deed?

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

It is literally impossible to get permission from people who just keep turning a blind eye to security. To them a new hack was invented specially for them regardless of how old the used flaws are. In their eyes they do security audits by hiring red teams, then ignore everything the team found and make more laws to cover their asses. They know their security sucks and they think it's okay because they can use the police as a substitute. This leaves the system in an overall worse place because if a state sponsored attack were to take advantage of these flaws, extradition will be impossible. Another country would never allow extradition of their "cyber soldiers." This guy is only getting screwed because he's a civilian in a country that plays nice.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Sarten-X]

That's not how it works... that's not how any of it works.

If you want to be a non-criminal hacker, but can't get permission from someone who doesn't care about security, you don't hack them. Period. You don't get to attack someone without invitation and keep your shiny clean reputation. This guy is getting screwed because he allegedly broke the law.

I've worked with red teams. If you're going to ignore their findings, you're better off not hiring them in the first place. See, red teams keep records. Those records can be subpoenaed, and if it turns out that you were told about a vulnerability and chose to ignore it, it's your ass on the line. Insurance companies won't pay for damages, approvals get revoked, and SLAs start invoking their failure clauses. It's a huge price tag that's almost always bigger that the price to fix the findings.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Hylandr]

it's your ass on the line.

You see officer we had a lot of problems with Bob and ultimately had to let him go due to some other compliance issues we uncovered. This, this we had no record of, but we will get on it immediately.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Sarten-X]

When Bob, Bob's peer, and their manager all sign off on the pentest plan, it's a lot more difficult to claim ignorance.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the laws say that his kind of behaviour is breaking those laws,why not say that folk who use a gun to murder people are showing the weakness is gun safety systems.
The little scrote is yer typical white,middle class twat who thinks he has some kind of right to interfere with other people's computer and data systems,if mummy and daddy didn't have "connections",the test would have been on a one way flight across the pond years ago,if mummy and daddy didn't have so much money,they would not be able to afford the kind of defence they are buying him,if he was some poor council estate rat,he would already be in a USA jail,which is precisely the right place for years like this..fingers crossed he fails and ends up doing proper jail time in USA...he only has mild aspergers,not a serious mental problem,more a sign of the little shit not being disciplined properly as a kid,strange isn't it how all the white middle class brit brats like him always have a supposed mental problem,like the little twat who tried to grab a police officers gun and has just copped a plea bargain deal,and lots of others who claim the defence of being nutters.
Fuck em,they did the crime,now let them do the time..

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[AmiMoJo]

The issue isn't that what he did wasn't wrong, it clearly was. The issue is that the US judicial and prison-industrial complex falls way short of European standards. It's particularly bad for people with medical issues, and those accused of national security or crimes against the military.

We can't extradite people to places where their human rights are likely to be violated. The legal argument here centres on the fact that the US doesn't respect human rights, as defined by the European Charter on Human Rights (ECHR).

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[mbeckman]

...what exactly is wrong about locating vulnerabilities on a system and informing the owner(s)? Sure it seems sketchy, but if no actual damage was done and no attack was made, then how can we possibly assert that it was *wrong*"

What's your home address? I want to break in to test your security measures. How can you possibly assert that I am *wrong*?

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[amias]

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Lauri is a highly ethically motivated hacker and a gentleman who has been stitched up by his government.
I've spoken with him and I know your assessment is only based on the contents of your ass , which also seems to be your mouth.

Re: No good dead goes unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck em,they did the crime,now let them do the time..

In the EU we know "99 years in jail for computer crimes" as cruel and unusual punishment. It's a legal term and it might very well be the last line of defence that eventually saves him from extradition. It doesn't mean that he would have to get sentenced for that 99 years in jail, it suffices that he could get sentenced to such a long time in jail.

a Spectrum abuser

[turkeydance]

or is that Spectre?

No justice

[Anonymous Coward]

U.S. prosecutors say he is using his mental health issues as an excuse to escape justice.

Not trying to defend what he did, but the USA does not have "justice".

"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[Nutria]

His defense team wants to set a precedent that Asperger's Syndrome is a Get Out Of Jail Free card.

Re:"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[SuricouRaven]

The UK generally accomodates mental health issues in prison. It isn't a get out of jail card, but it means he gets access to counselling and support. And the UK authorities already investigated the crime, and decided not to prosecute.

The US, on the other hand, takes a perverse pride in how terrible their prison system is. The public there expects, even demands that prisoners should suffer as much as possible. There is an ongoing legal conflict about providing prisons with air conditioning, when temperatures can easily reach the point of prisoners passing out and occasionally being hospitalised for heatstroke, yet administrators still refuse to address the situation because it would be seen as being 'soft on crime.' Prison rape is so common it's a subject for comedy, and that's the way the people like it. The emphasis is on punishment, not rehabilitation.

Re:"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[Nutria]

The UK generally accomodates mental health issues in prison.

Asperger's is a mental disease?

Re:"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[wonkey_monkey]

A mental health issue is automatically a disease?

Re:"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[Nutria]

A mental health issue is ...

so broad as to be meaningless.

Re:"who has Asperger's syndrome"

[evilviper]

The US, on the other hand, takes a perverse pride in how terrible their prison system is.

That's only true in some few localities. This guy, however, would be going to federal prison, which are very high quality and safe institutions, not subject to the whims of local voters.

Prison rape is so common it's a subject for comedy

So are "Cowboys", and both for the same reason. They are mythical constructs that help writers, and don't really exist, outside of Hollywood:

See: https://slashdot.org/comments....

Lauri Love to Be Extradited

[ememisya]

I swear I thought the article was about to explain how a man named Lauri would love to be extradited to US.

Trying to escape "justice"?

[Anonymous Coward]

The USA doesn't have a justice system.

It has a harsh and vindictive revenge system which seeks to utterly destroy people who embarrass it.

Re:So his defense is

[RandomSurfer314]

No, his defense is essentially that the US prison system is so inhumane that nobody should be extradited to it. Which is unfortunately a very reasonable defense based on facts. He wants to stand trial in the UK, where he has committed his crimes.

Statfor hacker goes free

[dbIII]

Meanwhile the Statfor hacker goes free because he was an FBI informant.
A bit weird when a guy who was only poking about looking for UFO stuff could be facing 99 years.

Re:I just wonder

[Alumoi]

POTUS: What do you mean extradite? Do you want to run out of CEOs?

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