Hacker Gary McKinnon turns into a search expert

Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who was the subject of a 10-year legal battle over US extradition, has reinvented himself as a search expert.

Mr McKinnon was arrested in 2002 and again in 2005 before an order for his extradition was made in July 2006 under the 2003 Extradition Act. The US authorities tried to extradite Mr McKinnon to face charges of causing $800,000 (£471,000) worth of damage to military computer systems and he would have faced up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

Mr McKinnon said he was looking for evidence of UFOs. US authorities at the time described Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon's actions as the "biggest military computer hack of all time" that was "calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion". An extradition warrant for Mr McKinnon is still outstanding, preventing his travel outside the UK.

www.bbc.co.uk...

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

Excuse me, but I feel it might be prudent to actually include some personal commentary in your OP, since otherwise this interesting article, and potentially interesting thread, might be closed on a technicality, despite the intriguing nature of the subject matter at hand.

Just a heads up!

FTA:

Mr McKinnon launched Small SEO, a site where he charges £40 an hour to help businesses get mentioned in search results.

McKinnon and every kid graduating high school think they're SEO experts.

Then good luck Gary, I wish you well......
You sure dipped uncle Sams face in the eggcreme that time.......

Good luck to him. I once saw a small time interview he did on youtube talking about the UFO and alien info he found on NASA computers. He has never seemed to sensationalise things or attempt to make money from things as far as I have seen.
I met him in a pub once and he came across as a really great guy.

originally posted by: stutteringp0et
FTA:

Mr McKinnon launched Small SEO, a site where he charges £40 an hour to help businesses get mentioned in search results.

McKinnon and every kid graduating high school think they're SEO experts.

Your point? That is a viable field and a step on the rung to bigger things in the industry. My GF's son fell back to doing that last year but now, here in Austin, he has a !00,000yr. ticket by way of his expertise.

Let us hope that he will be eventually able to write or co-author a book that tells more of the details of his experiences. However, I expect that is a false hope and he will have agreed to never mention a word about what he has seen.

Good on him.

America should thank him for showing how crap there computer security was. They were lucky it was him not iran or noth korea!

a reply to: crazyewok

I've had my computers, phone, laptop, and everything else you could possibly hacked for a while now. Is there a program you could recommend I download to stop top notch hacking?

a reply to: TomCorey

Im not a IT expert.


No was Gary McKinnon when he did the hacking which was the funny thing. He only got in cause NASA didnt bother to set passwords and just left them on default security settings.

USA got lucky it was just a UFO hunter and not a hostile nation.

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: TomCorey

Im not a IT expert.


No was Gary McKinnon when he did the hacking which was the funny thing. He only got in cause NASA didnt bother to set passwords and just left them on default security settings.

USA got lucky it was just a UFO hunter and not a hostile nation.

Yep, he simply entered "admin" for the password
I think thats partly why they made such a fuss about him, he'd made them look so stupid!

The other reason they made such a fuss was to scare the heebegeebees out of anyone else who might be tempted.

i just see it as another example of the real life hunger games..

post-adolescent idealist gary was anti-system; looking for UFO's to bring truth to the masses of district 12

post-alphabet gang gary is like one of those "hunger game contestants" who's now developed a taste for life in the capital

if we ever see gary & russell brand on david ickes TV show, the crapocalypse won't be too far off

a reply to: UNIT76


I used to visit this site all the time, and just last night started again. I had forgotten though, do you have to have so many posts before you can start your own threads?