LONDON – A British hacker is facing extradition to the United States after hacking into military computers for UFO evidence.
He is accused of hacking 97 military and NASA computers around 2001, often described as the biggest military computer hack ever. Authorities claim he deleted critical files from a number of expensive computers, but McKinnon denies this, saying he only accessed unsecure computers.
What was McKinnon looking for? Evidence of the government’s knowledge of alien life. In an interview with Wired Magazine, he described what he was after:
“A NASA photographic expert said that there was a Building 8 at Johnson Space Center where they regularly airbrushed out images of UFOs from the high-resolution satellite imaging. I logged on to NASA and was able to access this department. They had huge, high-resolution images stored in their picture files. They had filtered and unfiltered, or processed and unprocessed, files.
“My dialup 56K connection was very slow trying to download one of these picture files. As this was happening, I had remote control of their desktop, and by adjusting it to 4-bit color and low screen resolution, I was able to briefly see one of these pictures. It was a silvery, cigar-shaped object with geodesic spheres on either side. There were no visible seams or riveting. There was no reference to the size of the object and the picture was taken presumably by a satellite looking down on it. The object didn’t look manmade or anything like what we have created. Because I was using a Java application, I could only get a screenshot of the picture — it did not go into my temporary internet files. At my crowning moment, someone at NASA discovered what I was doing and I was disconnected.
I also got access to Excel spreadsheets. One was titled ‘Non-Terrestrial Officers.’ It contained names and ranks of U.S. Air Force personnel who are not registered anywhere else. It also contained information about ship-to-ship transfers, but I’ve never seen the names of these ships noted anywhere else.”
Is McKinnon telling the truth? There is no way to know, as he was unable to save anything he saw. He was subsequently arrested, and today was told he will be extradited to the United States to stand trial.
His mother, Janis Sharp, is pleading with President Obama to intervene, as McKinnon has Asperger’s Syndrome, which she believes led him to his unlawful behavior. “Obama wouldn’t have this. He doesn’t want the first guy extradited for computer misuse to be a guy with Asperger’s, a UFO guy,” said Sharp today.
Do you think he should be punished? Or was he really onto something?
[polldaddy poll=1827014]
Poor guy…just another victim of scapegoating…or so it seems.
Silly humans! We are the true asspurgers! Prepare to be probed!
He has suffered enough simply by being British. As punishment, he should only be allowed to use computers with Windows 98 and a 56k modem for the next 20 years.
You're going easy on him. i would have made him use Windows ME.
Seems pretty simple. Hack to in American computers go to American jail. Even someone with Asperger's should be able to figure that out.
The voting options are very black/white. Yes, I think McKinnon should be punished, but not as severe as the USA wants to.
McKinnon – UK resident – approx $600.000 in damages – might get 60 years of prison
Berkovich – USA resident – approx $4.100.000 in damages – got 55 months of jail sentence.
Both have Aspergers.
Now… tell me what is wrong with this picture?
I've told you people to stop being nosy. The next time we will remove you from your home planet.
Forget about countries and the legalities of extradition agreements. As a citizen of the US, people like McKinnon are a threat to our families' welfare. He breaches our national security for what, his personal amusement? I have Asperger's Syndrome and I'm disgusted that he allow his attorneys to use this as a defense. I am following this case with earnest and I am hopeful he gets sentenced to Pelican Bay. If so, it won't matter if he gets 10 years or 10 days. Inmates, there, know damn well why they're locked up and they don't look kindly to those that claim innocence for their obvious wrongdoings. Once imprisoned, he won't be hiding behind Asperger's for long.
He didnt do it well enough. Idiot used a crapppily slow connection. If it had been me, they wouldnt have caught me at all, and Id have the dirt on them too!
Wheres the threat to your families welfare? ROFL! Jesus christ, this gets like, better, the further I read. You think NASA or the NSA is interested in your families welfare? Hell no. They are more worried about people taking the sledge hammer to their "Hostile Weather Balloon /Flare Invasion" explanation.
So far, the U.K., and many other countries, dislike the USA's secrecy on Extra Terrestrials. The Termination of people who talk about what they seen. The Termination of people who talk about what they seen in the black project. The UNTIMELY, freakishly deaths of many ufologists in the US. The Government demands cease of a UFO Magazine issue and some books because they get too close to the truth. It's all there, and this Government within the US Government have become too powerful.
U.K. Also states that there is not enough evidence. Where the hell is it?
Oh, and yeah, there's something wrong here.
McKinnon – UK resident – approx $600.000 in damages – might get 60 years of prison
Berkovich – USA resident – approx $4.100.000 in damages – got 55 months of jail sentence.
Both have Aspergers.
And yet, people live with this like nothing is wrong. They only look at what fox news, msnbc, cnn or any other media channel has, which only talked about McKinnon hacking NASA, and making ufo's a joke. Hes going to spend the next 60 years of his life in a jail so that the so called "Great Honest People At NASA"(Sarcasm) can have some shuteye on it.
You better listen, and listen good. Those of you who continue to take the side of NASA and continue to hid s*** from the public, you have just made more enemies and we all know that a lie gets worse when more lies are applied. NASA, you just made yourself a bigger target for CyberAttacks and if you keep denying the evidence, people will take action and it only takes one great speaker to start a revolution against you, and this time we wont be "Asking" for the evidence, we will be getting it by force. You can bet your money I will be there to fight tooth and nail for our right to know and take out the people responsible for hiding what is rightfully ours to know!
There are some few issues about him but these issues must be cleared so that his name and reputation will not change.
@wuzzup: "As a citizen of the US, people like McKinnon…" – he's a citizen of the UK, not of the US.
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