Hacker step closer to extradition

Hacker step closer to extradition

news.bbc.co.uk

British computer hacker Gary McKinnon has lost the latest round of his battle against extradition to the US.

The Crown Prosecution Service refused to bring charges against him in the UK.

Mr McKinnon, 42, from Wood Green, north London, faces up to 70 years in prison if found guilty in the US of breaking into military computers.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Could ATS do anything in support of Gary McKinnon?
Gary McKinnon has just lost battle to stop extradiction...
Gary Mckinnon's (Possible) Sentence..out of proportion.
WHAT Does Gary Mckinnon REALLY know

It seems Gary is quickly running out of options.

Whatever you think of this man's actions many people believe the charges and potential penalties above all represent scapegoating (for poor security), not to mention making an example of the defendant to scare off other potential hackers.

For those unfamiliar with the history, do a search for threads on this guy, check out the related threads or some of the others (via the search facility). It makes for interesting reading...



news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

DAMNIT!


Gary is one of my idols, given the fact I know a thing or two about reverse engineering and exploitation.

What really bakes your noodle, is why would he of made up the claims about anti-gravity, UFOs, and free energy?

Sure, he's got an anxiety problem, but that's no reason to diminish him of his credibility. He's more credible than anyone else yet that I've seen come about saying the US government is hiding stuff from us.

double post

[edit on 26-2-2009 by Revolution-2012]

ohh man that sucks!! The charges brought on him are ridiculous. Free Gary!!!

2nd line

Usually, in the commercial world, security companies will often hire the best of their adversaries to come and work for them.
Basically paying them to find ways around their security so that they might better prevent attacks in the future.

It seems to me this concept would apply well in the military/government fields as well.

What good is he rotting in prison for 70 years?

He could be put to much better use if hired by the US government to find their security holes and explain them so that they might be patched.


It just seems to me like the governments security is hap-hazard and lazily enforced. It feels like they'd rather just throw money into a lawsuit rather than fix their actual problems.



It's almost like their method of thinking follows the lines of : "Why hire someone at a low wage to build a fence to keep out trespassers when you can hire an expensive lawyer to stand on your lawn."


This world never ceases to amaze nor disappoint me.

^^^


Remember guys, Gary is not a computer genious..
He is a not a hardcore hacker.

He gained a few IP's and used your everyday Remote software.
He didn't hack passwords, he used Admin for a username with blank passwords.

reply to post by xbranscombex


Ok, not to get into hacking, but I must immediately disqualify that statement.


Do you know what PERL is?

PERL is a scripting / high level programming language.

PERL can be used for various activities, I'm willing to bet that there is some PERL here on ATS scripted into the site, linking itself to SQL databases to make everything nice and pretty.

He compiled a PERL "Exploit", used a IP Scanner / Port scanner, listed the computers, then ran a Distributed Exploit, which uses a buffer overflow to initiate arbitrary code which in turn allows him to search for blank passwords on Administrator accounts.


In order for him to even be able to to launch a rootkit / VNC he would need to have *root* first.

Thank you, come again.

(if you didn't catch my drift, yes he did hack)

Originally posted by xbranscombex
^^^


Remember guys, Gary is not a computer genious..
He is a not a hardcore hacker.

He gained a few IP's and used your everyday Remote software.
He didn't hack passwords, he used Admin for a username with blank passwords.

If its that easy to break into sensitive government files its the govt that should be held accountable. And the government was elected to represent the people. Who are they to think they can hide stuff from us?

Well if the authorities do extradite him and sentence him to a prison sentence it will be clear NASA are hiding something that they do not want the tax payers to see.

I think it would be more beneficial on their part to let the whole episode die of death.Why are they making such a big deal about there own incompetence of securing the data they don't wont anyone to see.It is not like he found anything of substance anyway.

They (NASA) are going to end up with more egg on there faces if they pursue this drama. In my opinion anyway.

It is just a pity he only had a dial up connection.

oh no!

This guy rocks.

you may want to give him support on his blog:

freegary.org.uk...


RUN GARY!

reply to post by johnsky


As xbranscombex said, he's not that much of an amazing hacker.

You get people who are ridiculously much more talented than this. So no, they probably wouldn't want to hire him.

Oh on a lighter note, i heard he accomplished all this through an ipod

login: admin
password:

press enter

wonder why no measures has been taken in finding the fellow/s that made the blunder in the first place to not include a PASSWORD.

but i guess the apple dosent fall far from the tree when you reflect on whats been going on in the u.s since norad was on stand down.

but i guess the apple dosent fall far from the tree when you reflect on whats been going on in the u.s since norad was on stand down.

Its very normal, since the nation does not have any physical threat from its borders. If you take for example other nations who on there borders have other existing nations who openly threaten them with war, well you will see that the level of readiness is way more on an amber alert than on green.

reply to post by zerbot565


NORAD, on 'stand down???'

Oh never mind.....THAT kind of conspiracy runs deep, and silent, anyway....

(sigh).....no point in refuting that the 'OTHERS' already believe to be 'truth'....

Gary has stated that he has something in his back pocket should he be extradited to the US.

It should be interesting to see if anything does pop out of the woodwork should he lose his case.

Absolutely disgusting pandering to the Americans.

Do we not have laws in this country? Honestly, this guy was as big a threat to "national security" as the myth of terrorist attacks - absolutely none. Keep on believing, America, because your government is made up of evil people.

Yes, indeed I did say evil.

reply to post by zerbot565


Would you please refrain from thinking hacking is so simple, I do not have a admin password on my computer and I'll personally invite you and anyone else on this board to hack into my computer.


No one even knows what it required to do, except me, so far from what I've seen is a bunch of speculation and throwing about oh a 3 year old could of done it.


Why don't you go ahead look above and see my post referring to how he did it, it took more effort than USER ADMIN PASS 0

Originally posted by Revolution-2012
reply to post by zerbot565

 

Would you please refrain from thinking hacking is so simple, I do not have a admin password on my computer and I'll personally invite you and anyone else on this board to hack into my computer.


No one even knows what it required to do, except me, so far from what I've seen is a bunch of speculation and throwing about oh a 3 year old could of done it.

Why don't you go ahead look above and see my post referring to how he did it, it took more effort than USER ADMIN PASS 0

Interesting to read..!