hacking for aliens

[anotheranon]

D. directed me to this story from Slashdot about Gary McKinnon, a British citizen who allegedly broke into 50-odd U.S. military databases. Right now he's fighting extradition.

I listened to the audio interview and.. I'm stunned. I'm not sure what part of the story is most odd or disturbing - that this guy really didn't expect that the U.S. justice system would come down this hard on him, that he found it easy to get into these systems, that he saw many others hacking the same systems, or the reason he claims for his hacking - not money, fame, glory, but to uncover evidence of UFO secrecy.

Not sure whether this guy could be called brilliant, insane, stupid, painfully naive or making up a really strange story to cover his ass. He sounds quite calm and level headed. The UFO secrecy group he claims influenced him is mute on the subject.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Personally I think the U.S. DOJ will have his head on a plate.

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I have very little knowledge of computer security, but my gut tells me to point out these breaches of security to your husband or SOMEONE who works on the DOD sites - whoever is in charge would probably like to know and fix it before they get caught with their pants down like the facility in VA.

I'm all for government transparency, but I'm aware that there are some things that need to be hidden. If classified material is really this easy to get into it's actually kind of disturbing. Besides there's a tiny cynic crying inside me that says McKinnon wouldn't have gone to all this effort without some sort of compensation. I hope that's just my paranoia speaking up.

[kat1392.livejournal.com]

It has actually been pointed out the government on several occasions, but they insist they have a secure system. The user id and password system used is a very good they say. Unfortunately, that's the way the government works. Until the system is compromised in a big way, they aren't going to do anything about it.

I would like to think that he had some compensation for doing what he did. Having said that, there are some people who just like to do stuff like this because they get a thrill out of it.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Well, it's definitely been "compromised in a big way"! Re: compensation - the sad thing is that if he had been hired to test the security features, he probably would have made a mint and be some sort of hero. Now, I don't know - my reservation re: compensation would be that another government or group paid him to hack sensitive U.S. systems.

And yes - he might even be telling the truth. For some, the thrill of the chase IS everything.