Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

Gary McKinnon to be Extradited

British “UFO Hacker” Gary McKinnon today lost his high court bid to avoid extradition to the US, for allegedly carrying out the “biggest military computer hack of all time” in 2001.

Under the codename Solo, he is said during a period of 18 months to have hacked into hundreds of machines belonging to the Pentagon, the US army and air force and Nasa not properly secured by officials.

US prosecutors claim he caused $700,000 (£375,000) worth of damage. A lawyer for the US government said the hacking “was intentional and calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion”.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2006, Mr McKinnon claimed he had simply been searching for evidence of UFO activity.

It’s hard to find the truth in this story – McKinnon claims to be just browsing around looking for UFO information, while the US government claims he took down thousands of computers. Wonder how much of the $700,000 ‘damage’ was costs of setting up the computers again properly, with adequate defence against hacking? In that particular aspect, McKinnon no doubt actually did them a favour. He faces a sentence of 70 years if found guilty.

Mobile menu - fractal