British hacker loses final legal challenge

Oh how I love stories relating to hacking, take a read of this one, just in..

Gary McKinnon, the British hacker facing extradition to the US for breaking into American military computer systems, has lost a final legal challenge in the High Court.

Mr McKinnon admits hacking into military and Nasa computers but says he was on a “moral crusade” to find classified documents about Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), not a malicious individual bent on bringing down US military systems.

This is not a view shared by the American authorities, who say his actions in 2001 and 2002 caused $800,000 (£487,000) damage – something he disputes.

They also accuse him of immobilising sensitive systems in the months following the 9/11 attacks.

If extradited and convicted in the US, the Glasgow-born computer enthusiast, who now lives in Wood Green, north London, could face up to 70 years in prison.

His case has attracted widespread publicity and a range of celebrities as diverse as Terry Waite, Sting and Julie Christie, as well as politicians from all the major parties, have called for him to be freed or at least tried in the UK.

It has focused debate on what some see as the imbalance in the extradition treaty between the US and UK, under which, critics say, it is much harder for a UK application to be successful.

The Daily Mail reported that the prime minister said he was sympathetic to the case of Mr McKinnon, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism – last year, and it raised a number of issues.

American authorities allege between February 2001 and March 2002, Mr McKinnon, 43, hacked into dozens of US army, navy, air force, and Department of Defense computers, as well as 16 Nasa computers.

They also say Mr McKinnon altered and deleted files at a US naval air station not long after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001.

The article goes on for quite a while, so I suggest you head on over to BBC News and read the rest there..